PMC Bank scam: HDIL MD Sarang Wadhawan's wife received Rs 70 lakh salary for working as retainer, finds ED probe

HDIL promoter and Managing Director and PMC scam accused Sarang Wadhawan’s wife Anu received Rs 70 lakh for working as a retainer in HDIL group firm Privilege Industries since 2016, according to media reports.

In her statement to the ED, Anu Wadhawan said that she was not a director on any of the HDIL group companies, and could not explain the source of funds for procuring assets like bungalows in Bandra, Vasai and Alibaug, besides flats in Bandra, Moneycontrol said.

Privilege Industries, an HDIL firm that Anu joined as marketing retainer in 2016, manufactures a major international beer brand in the country.

The Enforcement Directorate is probing suspected money laundering in the Rs 6,300-crore loan fraud case.

Malti, wife of another co-accused in the case, Rakesh Wadhawan -promoter of HDIL Malti, said she was a housewife. However, she could not explain the source of the funds through which properties were purchased in her name in Pune, Bandra, Vasai and Palghar, according to a report in India Today.

The ED also questioned Meena Rohira, a close friend of the Wadhawans, and a director of an HDIL group company named M Estate Developers. Rohira claimed to have no idea about the business of the company, according to the Moneycontrol report.

Rohira owns Basera, a posh bungalow overseeing the coastline at Bandstand, Bandra (in Mumbai), which was previously owned by the Wadhawans. She claimed that she had purchased the bungalow from Wadhawans by selling them her ancestral land.

PMC Bank fraud

The fraud at PMC Bank came to light in September this year after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) discovered that the bank had allegedly created fictitious accounts to hide over Rs 6,700 crore in loans extended to the almost-bankrupt HDIL.

According to the RBI, PMC bank masked 44 problematic loan accounts, including HDIL loan accounts, by tampering with its core banking system, and the accounts were accessible only to limited staff members, according to a PTI report.

The city police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and Enforcement Directorate has registered offenses in the case.

After a liquidity crisis at the bank came to light in September, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed restrictions on withdrawal of funds, leaving depositors high and dry.

On 23 September 2019, the RBI had imposed regulatory restrictions on the bank. The withdrawal limit for account holders was initially kept at Rs 1,000 per day, which was increased gradually to Rs 50,000.

In the first week of December, nearly 78 percent depositors of the scam-hit PMC Bank were allowed to withdraw their entire deposits even though the ceiling of Rs 50,000 on withdrawal continues.

Lawyer Sarosh DamaniaA filed a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed this month (18 December) seeking quick disposal of HDIL group’s assets which have been attached by Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and speedy return of the depositors’ money. He said ordinary court proceedings will take years before depositors get their money back. He said the HC should direct speedy disposal of the attached assets.

--With PTI inputs