ED arrests DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan in Iqbal Mirchi PMLA case

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested the CMD of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), Kapil Wadhawan, in connection with its money laundering probe against dead gangster Iqbal Mirchi and others, officials said on Monday.

They said Wadhawan, 46, has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was allegedly not cooperating in the probe and was "untrustworthy" in his dealings and statements made to the agency.

Wadhawan was questioned during the day at the agency office at Ballard Estate her. He had been questioned in the past too.

Wadhawan has been renamed in the ED custody till January 29 after he was produced before a special PMLA court here.

The case relates to Mirchi's Mumbai properties, which have been called as proceeds of crime by the ED, and three such properties were sold to Sunblink, the company linked to Wadhawan brothers, Kapil and Dheeraj.

It is alleged by the agency that Kapil Wadhawan "diverted" funds from DHFL to shell companies and later these dubious companies got amalgamated with Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd to "cover" alleged diversion of loans acquired from DHFL.

The ED alleged that the conduit of Sunblink was "purposefully created by Kapil Wadhawan as CMD of DHFL and others just to obfuscate the trail of money for purchase of properties" from the Mirchi family.

The ED has filed a criminal case against Mirchi alias Iqbal Memon, his family and others to probe money laundering charges for alleged illegal dealings in purchase and sale of costly real estate assets in Mumbai.

Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, was alleged to be the right hand man of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in drug trafficking and extortion crimes.