On April 28 this year, the agency had arrested Chhabria of Radius Group of developers for his alleged role in the default of loan repayment to DHFL. Radius Group owes over Rs 3,000 crore to DHFL. (File)The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently submitted a supplementary chargesheet before a special court in the DHFL-Yes Bank case, adding developer Sanjay Chhabria and his five firms as accused. The agency said that investigation revealed that investments made by Yes Bank in non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) were “intricately linked” to loans sanctioned to Chhabria’s Radius Group.
On April 28 this year, the agency had arrested Chhabria of Radius Group of developers for his alleged role in the default of loan repayment to DHFL. Radius Group owes over Rs 3,000 crore to DHFL.
The supplementary chargesheet filed last month stated that loans of about Rs 3,094 crore were sanctioned by DHFL to Chhabria’s companies shortly after receipt of the funds invested by Yes Bank Ltd in DHFL.
Now there are 20 accused in the case, including Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, his family members and DHFL promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan.
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The agency also said that Kapil Wadhawan began disbursing loans to Chhabria without any appraisal or proper credit process notes and Rs 416 crore was disbursed during a period of four months in 2018 after Yes Bank invested in DHFL.
It said that of Rs 416 crore, Rs 80 crore was disbursed in one day with an approval by Wadhawan within 22 minutes after an email was received from his team regarding the same . In another instance, approval regarding Rs 70 crore was given in six minutes.
The CBI said 49 units in a Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) project were offered by Radius Group firms to DHFL for the said loans as mortgages. The agency claimed that an employee of the Radius group had stated that concerned units were already mortgaged to other lenders and hence “simply did not exist”.
The CBI said that all the said loans were unsecured and were neither repaid nor any formal application for project finance was received. Subsequently, Chhabria refused to repay them when the DHFL office pursued it. Chhabria had said the Wadhawans owed him Rs 250 crore. Later, DHFL promoter Dheeraj Wadhawan provided mortgage for the said loans availed by Chhabria.
The chargesheet said that DHFL’s head of project finance division took this up with Kapil, who did not deny Chhabria’s claim. In 2019, Dheeraj offered a property owned by his firm M/s RKW Developers Pvt. Ltd. for the loans availed by Radius Group. Two other properties of companies owned by him were also offered as security.
“..Accused Kapil Wadhawan had developed a practice in DHFL wherein he used to permit disbursement of loans/funds to several entities by according approval on mails, without any appraisal and credit process notes…Some of such beneficiary concerns were associate concerns of DHFL/Dheeraj Realty, while loans/funds were also disbursed and released to others like Radius Group concerns,” the CBI said.
It added, “Investigation has established a chain of events clearly outlining a conspiracy among Sanjay Chhabria and Dheeraj Wadhawan, as well as Kapil Wadhawan, in signing and execution of the documents to facilitate the disbursement, the diversion of the funds released by Yes Bank to DHFL and onward transfer thereof to M/s Flag Industries India Pvt. Ltd. of accused Sanjay Chhabria.”
DHFL had defaulted on repayment of Rs 91,000 crore to its lenders. In February 2021, DHFL was acquired by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance for Rs 37,250 crore through the bankruptcy resolution process.
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