The CBI special court extended till May 8 the custody of businessmen-brothers Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of DHFL group in connection with the Yes Bank scam. The duo was arrested last week from a quarantine facility at Mahabaleshwar in Satara district of Maharashtra, nearly 50 days after they were booked in a case of bribery against former Yes Bank CEO Rana Kapoor.
The Wadhawans were produced before a special court as their previous remand ended. The probe agency sought their further custody saying that it needed to probe the "deeper conspiracy" between the Wadhawans and Kapoor. The agency alleged that there are more than 150 shell companies controlled by the Wadhawans, which they want to examine.
Besides, there are several companies floated by Rana Kapoor and his family and it needed to check whether they (Wadhawans) had any transactions with these companies, the agency said. Defense advocate Subodh Desai opposed the CBI's plea saying their custody was not required as everything was on record. However, the court extended the custody till May 8. The Wadhawan brothers are named as accused in the CBI FIR about swindling of money by Kapoor and others, the officials said.
The agency has alleged that Kapoor, entered into a criminal conspiracy with Wadhawan brothers for extending the financial assistance to DHFL through Yes Bank in return for substantial undue benefits to himself and his family members through companies held by them. According to the CBI FIR, the scam started taking shape between April to June, 2018 when Yes Bank invested £370 million in short-term debentures of the scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL).
In return, Wadhawan allegedly "paid kickback of £60 million" to Kapoor and family members in the form of loans to DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd held by the wife and daughters of Kapoor.
Besides the CBI, the duo was also being probed by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Yes Bank scam.
