Wadhawans didn't repay 4 other banks, three of them PSBs

MUMBAI: The father-son duo arrested in the Rs 4,355 crore bank loan fraud case had also taken loans from three nationalised banks and a private bank and failed to repay them. This is what a probe into the Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank fraud case has revealed. The amount of the loans is still to be computed.

Also, assets worth Rs 500 crore belonging to Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan - directors of real estate group HDIL, to which the banks had extended loans - have now been provisionally attached. This includes moveable and immoveable properties, shares, demat accounts of the accused, said officials from the economic offences wing, the probe agency. With this, the total worth of impounded assets has crossed Rs 4,000 crore.

The Wadhawans, HDIL and its subsidiaries had borrowed Rs 4,355 crore from the bank between 2008 and 2019, but failed to repay outstandings. An officer said they have sought details of the loans from the other four banks. "We want to check how much still remains unpaid," said the officer.


Besides the Wadhwans, two top bank officials - suspended MD Joy Thomas and ex-chairman Waryam Singh - have been arrested. Police sources said Thomas has told interrogators he had been visiting the Wadhawans to seek repayment of the loan, but they did not pay heed.

"Thomas claims he had told the Wadhawans he would classify their loan as a non-performing asset. He says they told him that it would tarnish their image in the market and, if that happened, they threatened him saying that he would have to face the consequences," a source said.