MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has submitted a third supplementary chargesheet in the PMC Bank and Housing Development & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (PMC-HDIL) loan fraud investigation. This chargesheet pertains to around 1,700 acres of land in the Sindhudurg district, which the agency has already attached and is seeking to have confiscated by the court.
In the chargesheet, the ED alleges that Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan, along with others, misused funds embezzled from PMC Bank to acquire agricultural land in the names of proxies, including their employees. Their intention was to sell this land at a profit for a proposed Vijay Durg port project, which has since stalled due to the ED’s intervention.
The state government is eager to advance the port’s development and has indicated that the land may revert to PMC Bank through restitution. With the ED’s approval, PMC Bank could consider transferring the land to the state for this project while safeguarding its financial interests.
The ED’s probe into the money laundering allegations surrounding the PMC Bank-HDIL loan fraud continues, previously involving investigations into board members Joy Thomas and Waryam Singh of PMC Bank, along with Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan and his son Sarang from HDIL.
It is claimed that the managing director of PMC Bank and other HDIL board members colluded to falsify the bank’s records by replacing 44 legitimate loan accounts with 21,049 fictitious ones, resulting in a wrongful loss of ₹4,355 crore to PMC Bank, benefiting themselves and others in the process.
To date, the ED has provisionally attached assets worth over ₹772 crore related to this case and has filed four chargesheets naming a total of 46 individuals. The latest supplementary chargesheet strengthens the case by outlining the money trail from HDIL accounts for land purchases in Sindhudurg through proxies led by Mukesh Khadpe. During the investigation, evidence showed that the Wadhawans channeled proceeds of illegal activities from HDIL’s accounts to various individuals and entities for acquiring extensive agricultural lands from local villagers under the names of farmers and employees, spearheaded by Mukesh Khadpe.
