The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth ₹185.84 crore, including 154 flats in Mumbai, in connection with its money-laundering probe into the alleged ₹34,615-crore bank loan fraud by Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL), its promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, and others. With this, the total value of assets attached in the case has risen to ₹256.23 crore.

The company, its promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, and others are accused of conspiring to cheat a consortium of 17 banks, led by the public-sector Union Bank of India (UBI), causing them a wrongful loss of ₹34,615 crore, according to ED officials.

The ED’s Mumbai unit attached assets, including 154 flats at a project in Kurla belonging to the company, and receivables or funds from 20 of the flats, on Friday, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, officials said.

The agency initiated its investigation based on a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in June 2022 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. The case was registered against DHFL, Kapil Wadhawan, Dheeraj Wadhawan, and others for allegedly committing fraud and cheating the bank consortium.

The investigation revealed that the accused allegedly induced the consortium to sanction loans amounting to ₹42,871 crore but later dishonestly defaulted on repaying them, causing the banks a wrongful loss of ₹34,615 crore. Officials said the accused then diverted and misappropriated the loan funds by falsifying DHFL’s account books.

In 2017-18, Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan allegedly conspired to divert DHFL funds through proxy companies and other methods for fraudulent trading in DHFL shares, said an ED official. “These trades, executed via brokers, were pre-arranged to rig the share price and volumes of the publicly listed DHFL stock,” the official added.

In October 2023, the ED had provisionally attached assets worth ₹70.39 crore, including paintings and sculptures worth ₹28.58 crore, high-end watches worth ₹5 crore, diamond jewellery worth ₹10.71 crore, a 20% stake in a helicopter, worth ₹9 crore, and two flats in Bandra worth ₹17.1 crore. The agency had filed its charge sheet in the case in a special Mumbai court in April this year. The total attachments in the case till date stand at ₹256.23 crore.