11 of 40 accused in ₹35,000 crore DHFL bank fraud turn approver for CBI
Eleven of the accused, out of 40 individuals named along with the promoters –– Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan –– of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) in a ₹34,000 crore bank fraud case, have turned approver for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and have been granted pardon under the criminal procedure code (CrPC), people familiar with the matter said.
The development, officials say, is a shot in the arm for CBI's prosecutors who can now use these approvers to unearth the entire conspiracy and make a strong case against the Wadhawan brothers during the trial.
Among those who have turned approver for the CBI are businessmen Sudhakar Shetty and Abhay Adukia, and film producer Parag Sanghvi . They approached a Special CBI court in Delhi this week asking to be made approvers under section 306 and 307 of the CrPC (now sections 343 and 344 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) which deal with the tender of pardon to an accomplice.
According to an order issued by the court of Special Judge, Ashwani Kumar Sarpal, at Rouse Avenue Courts on Tuesday, Shetty claimed in his plea that 'he wants to disclose facts regarding the DHFL fraud and help CBI in its probe and trial'.
CBI, according to the order, didn't oppose their plea to turn approver. The agency informed the court that evidence from these approvers 'will help it to prove the conspiracy angle which otherwise cannot be established by direct evidence'.
Others who have decided to help the CBI instead of going to jail are Ritesh Virchand Shah, Dinesh Bansal, Nikhil Mansukhani, Rajen Vasant Kumar Dhruv, Gopal Dalvi, Vivek Jayesh Thar, Arvind Kayan and Malav Mehta. The court allowed these eight to turn approvers, through separate orders in January and February this year, and granted them pardon, thereby striking off their names from CBI charge sheets.
These 11 individuals were named by the federal investigation agency in its two charge sheets filed in October 2022 (naming 74 accused including 18 individuals and 56 companies) and April 2024 (naming 34 accused including 22 individuals and 12 companies).
Overall, 108 individuals and companies were named in the DHFL probe , considered the single largest bank fraud case ever.
It is alleged that between January 2010 and December 2019, a consortium of 17 banks extended credit facilities worth ₹42,871 crore to DHFL. The Wadhawans siphoned off the funds to shell companies/paper entities, known as 'Bandra Book Entities', and caused a loss of ₹34,926 crore to the consortium.
The Piramal Group took over control of DHFL in 2021 through corporate insolvency resolution process.
In its probe, CBI has found that after obtaining funds, DHFL gave loans of about ₹11,765 crores to approximately 87 shell companies, out of which 81 belonged to companies of Wadhawan Group itself.
These companies were not recorded in the company's books of accounts and instead the amount was shown as loans given to 2,60,315 fictitious persons without any documentation, security or even loan applications.
DHFL and its promoters are being investigated by CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in other cases including one involving Yes Bank and its founder Rana Kapoor.
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