Enforcement Directorate moves Bombay HC seeking cancellation of bail of DHFL Chairman Kapil Wadhawan

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on February 21 had granted bail to Kapil Wadhawan.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday moved the Bombay High Court seeking cancellation of bail of Kapil Wadhawan, chairman and managing director of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), who was arrested in a money laundering case involving deceased gangster Iqbal Mirchi.

A single judge bench of justice Prakash D Naik through video conferencing hearing issued notice to Wadhawan after ED sought an urgent hearing and his custody for violating bail conditions and travelling out of Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar during COVID-19 lockdown period.

The ED on Wednesday submitted that as per bail conditions, Wadhawan had to appear regularly before it for investigation and he could not have gone out of city for longer period.

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on February 21 had granted bail to Kapil Wadhawan.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Wadhawan (46) on January 27 alleging that he was instrumental in laundering of huge amounts of money as part of an illegal deal with Mirchi, who died in London in 2013.

The Special court, however, put some conditions while releasing Wadhawan on bail. While it asked Wadhawan to pay a cash bond of Rs. 5 lakh, it also directed that he must visit the ED office as and when summoned. Special Judge Prashant Rajvaidya further directed Wadhawan to surrender his passport to the investigation officer and prohibited from leaving the country without the court’s permission.

Wadhawan had filed a bail plea before the special PMLA court judge P Rajvaidya in February, this year. Senior advocate Amit Desai, appearing for Wadhawan, had submitted that transactions of DHFL, which ED had cited for his arrest, had no connection with Mirchi’s dealings.

The ED, however, opposed the bail plea on the ground that Wadhawan might influence the probe. It also argued that three properties in Worli, belonging to Mirchi, are proceeds of crime. The agency claimed that Dheeraj Wadhawan, also a promoter of DHFL, expressed interest in buying the properties. After meetings with Mirchi, it was decided that the properties would be bought through one of Wadhawan companies, Sunblink.

The Enforcement Directorate on April 10 issued seizure orders for five luxury vehicles in which DHFL promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan travelled to their farmhouse in Maharashtra’s Mahabaleshwar during the coronavirus lockdown.

The Wadhawan brothers and 21 others, including their family members, were put in quarantine in Mahabaleshwar after it came to light on April 9 that they travelled to the tourist town from Khandala in alleged breach of the 21-day lockdown imposed on March 25 to check the spread of coronavirus.

The state police had booked them under sections of the IPC and the Disaster Management Act. The brothers are being probed by the ED as part of two PMLA probes linked to gangster Iqbal Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, and Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor.

The High Court will further hear ED’s bail cancellation plea on April 23.