ED seizes luxury vehicles of Wadhawans used for Mahabaleshwar trip

An FIR has been registered against Kapil Wadhawan of DHFL group and 22 others, including his family members and servants, at Mahabaleshwar Police Station for violating lockdown orders, Satara Police said.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday issued seizure orders for five luxury vehicles in which DHFL promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan travelled to their farmhouse in Maharashtra's Mahabaleshwar during the coronavirus lockdown, officials said.

The federal agency has sent the official order, issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), to the Satara Superintendent of Police for execution, they said.

The vehicles, two Range Rover and three Toyota Fortuner cars, are "beneficially owned" by Kapil Wadhawan through their controlled entity RKW Construction Facility Management Pvt Ltd and another company called Golden Beach Infracon Pvt Ltd, the order said.

While two vehicles bear Jharkhand number plates, the others sport Maharashtra's registration number.

The order said the vehicles are "proceeds of crime" of money laundering and hence placed under seizure which can also be confiscated at a later stage.

"The said the seized high-end vehicles are not to be dealt with in any manner without prior written permission from the ED authorities," it said.

The investigating officer of the case has also asked the district police to serve the seizure memo to the Wadhawans, fix a copy of the memo on each vehicle and keep the keys in their custody.

"After the service of the seizure memo, these vehicles should not be allowed to be used in any circumstance," the order said.

The Wadhawan brothers and 21 others, including their family members, are at present in quarantine in Mahabaleshwar after it came to light on Thursday that they travelled to the tourist town from Khandala in alleged breach of the 21-day lockdown imposed on March 25 to check the spread of coronavirus.

The state police has booked them under sections of the IPC and the Disaster Management Act. The brothers are being probed by the ED as part of two PMLA probes linked to gangster Iqbal Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, and Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor.

(Input from agencies)