DHFL bank fraud: Delhi court denies bail to bizman Ajay Nawandar

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday denied bail to businessman Ajay Ramesh Nawandar in a Rs 34,615-crore bank fraud case involving Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), and also cancelled the interim bail granted to him earlier.

Special Judge Ashwani Kumar Sarpal noted that the accused had manipulated the medical record in procuring interim bail in the case, and said that the chances of tampering of evidence and influencing public witnesses by the accused were greater. "After considering the above facts and circumstances, I am of the view that allegations against accused Ajay Nawandar are somehow serious in nature and he being known to the main accused, former DHFL CMD Kapil Wadhawan and former director of the company Dheeraj Wadhawan, intentionally conspired with them for the purpose of concealment, diversion and disposal of the funds of the company and properties purchased from the same which ultimately belonged to banks," the judge said.

The court said that the accused and his family did not have financial constraints and simple fact that he was having wife behind to be looked into did not create any ground to release him on bail. "No ground exists to grant bail to this accused and accordingly bail application on merits is rejected. His interim bail granted on August 31, 2022 which was extended from time to time is hereby cancelled," the judge said. The judge noted that the accused allegedly entered into conspiracy with main accused Wadhawan brothers in order to dispose of and conceal the proceeds of embezzled funds. The CBI had conducted searches at Nawandar's premises and recovered a large collection of uber-luxury watches worth crores of rupees, including Rolex Oyster Perpetual, Cartier, Omega and Hublot Michael Kors, and two paintings worth Rs 33 crore.

The agency said that these valuable items belonged to Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, who allegedly defrauded banks to the tune of Rs 34,615 crore, making it the biggest such case probed by the agency. These were allegedly purchased using the proceeds of the scam and kept at Nawandar's premises to evade recovery and seizure by enforcement agencies, the CBI said. The CBI said that Nawandar was acting as a conspirator aiding and abetting Wadhawans to hide the proceeds of the crime and he was in the process to dispose these items of when he was arrested by the agency. "During the investigation, it was found that the (DHFL) promoters had allegedly diverted the funds and made investments in various entities.

It was also alleged that the promoters had acquired expensive paintings and sculptures worth about Rs 55 crore (approximately) using the diverted funds," the CBI had said. The CBI had acted on a complaint from the Union Bank of India (UBI), the leader of a 17-member lender consortium that had extended credit facilities to DHFL to the tune of Rs 42,871 crore between 2010 and 2018. The bank has alleged that Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, in a criminal conspiracy with others, misrepresented and concealed facts, committed criminal breach of trust and abused public funds to cheat the consortium to the tune of Rs 34,615 crore by defaulting on loan repayments from May 2019 onwards. An audit of DHFL's account books showed that the company allegedly committed financial irregularities, diverted funds, fabricated books and round-tripped funds to "create assets for Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan", using public money.