Directors of PMC's major defaulter firm HDIL arrested

Mumbai police on Thursday arrested two directors of the Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) in the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam and also seized Rs 3,500 crore property of the company, a senior official said.

A Special Investigation Team of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested Rakesh Wadhawan, chairman and managing director of HDIL and his son Sarang Wadhawan for loan default, the official said.

Both the accused were called by EOW office to join the investigation, he said.

During their inquiry, police did not get satisfactory answers to specific questions, following which both were arrested on the basis of certain facts which surfaced during the investigation, the official said.

Properties worth around Rs 3,500 crore, belonging to HDIL, have also been frozen by the EOW, he said.

Police are collecting more information about the scam and interrogation of the arrested father-son duo is going on, he said. All those involved in this case will be called for an inquiry, he added.

As many as 44 bank accounts of HDIL and associate companies have been identified, the official said.

EOW had registered an FIR on Monday against senior officials of HDIL and the PMC Bank for allegedly causing losses to the tune of Rs 4,355.43 crore to the bank.

The FIR was filed under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant or banker), 420 (cheating), and 465, 466 and 471 (related to forgery) of the Indian Penal Code along with 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), he said.

A special investigation team (SIT) was formed by the EOW to investigate the case.

The corporate office of Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) at Bandra in western suburbs and Bhandup branch of PMC in eastern suburbs were searched by the EOW, he said adding some important documents were seized.

Police had also issued Look Out Circulars (LOCs) against 17 persons, including Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang, in this connection to ensure that they could not leave the country.