New Delhi: The Crime Bureau Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday exposed a scam worth thousands of crores linked to the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and registered a case against Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, the promoters of crisis-hit Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) in connection with criminal conspiracy in housing loan case. The Wadhaman brothers had opened a “fake and fictitious” Bandra Branch of DHFL, where fake housing loan accounts of borrowers, who repaid their housing loan earlier, were created to the tune of 2.60 lakh, CBI said.
A lumpsum of Rs 14,046 crore, out of which Rs 11,755.79 crore was routed to several fictitious firms known as Bandra Book Firms, was loaned to borrowers. A forensic audit report, unearthed by Grant Thornton disclosed the irregularities of DHFL, after which the CBI registered a case on March 15 this year.
Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan are already in jail, after the CBI court had rejected their bail plea in connection to money-laundering and fraud charges in the YES Bank scam case.
According to report by the NDTV, the CBI said that Kapil and Dheeraj Wdhawan created fictitious home loan accounts under PMAY Scheme, amounting to more than Rs 14,000 crore and availed ₹ 1,880 crore in interest subsidy from the Centre.
DHFL is a housing finance company that offers house loans under PMAY scheme – which offers loans for the economically weaker sections, low and middle income group of the society for buying land and houses. The CBI said that DHFL had processed as many as 88,651 cases under the PMAY Scheme.
In November 2019, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) superseded the board of DHFL.