MUMBAI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) produced Mehul Thakur of Viva Group and Madan Gopal Chaturvedi before a special court on Saturday. The court remanded the two into four days ED custody.
ED questioned the two for several hours before arresting them in the case on early Saturday. Mehul is relative of Vasai MLA Hitendra Thakur.
On Friday morning, the ED raided the premises of Virar based Viva Group, which belongs to the Hitendra Thakur in two separate money laundering cases connected with HDIL-PMC Bank fraud and Yes Bank scam. Rs 73 lakh cash along with digital and documentary evidence were recovered during the raid.
Thakur’s son Kshitij is also an MLA from Nallasopara. His brother Javendra (Bhai)Thakur is a former gangster and the family enjoys tremendous clout in Vasai-Virar-Palghar belt. ED took the help of 30 CRPF personnel to provide security during the raid.
Kshitij denied involvement of Viva Group in money laundering after stating that ED itself is not saying it in its press release and pointing the finger at associates for which the group should not be held accountable. He also denied any financial transaction with PMC Bank.
ED searched the registered office of Viva Group in Virar along with residential premises of Thakur family and an office in Andheri. They also searched residences of two financial consultants of Viva Group at Juhu and Chembur.
It is alleged that HDIL promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang Wadhawan, then PMC Bank chairman Waryam Singh and its managing director Joy Thomas, and others had caused a loss of Rs 4,355 crore to PMC Bank and were making gains for themselves. ED has attached several properties of Wadhawans worth Rs 293 crore along with jewellery worth Rs 63 crore in the case.
During the investigation, the ED found that Wadhawans have allegedly diverted more than Rs 160 crore from HDIL to Viva Group controlled companies in the garb of commission. Source of these was illegal fund diversion from PMC Bank. In a separate case, the ED also found that Wadhawans have siphoned off Rs 200 crore that their group obtained from Yes Bank as a loan to Mack Star Marketing.
ED found that Wadhawans fraudulently transferred two commercial properties of Mack Star in Kaledonia building, Andheri East in Mumbai worth Rs 34 crore to Viva Group. For the transfer of the two properties, separate sale agreements dated June 26, 2017 were prepared. In the sale agreements, the purchase amount was shown to be paid via 37 cheques by Viva Holding (Viva Group) to Mack Star Marketing against the purchase of the properties. But investigators found that these cheques were never encashed in the account of Mack Star.
Kshitij Thakur said, “We have issued cheques like in any business transaction, if they have not deposited it into the bank that is not our responsibility. No were in its release, the ED saying involvement of Viva Group in the money laundering, but they are talking about associates. Why we should have held responsible for the act of our associates.”