‘115cr diverted to buy 1.4cr DHFL shares at lower price’

Mumbai: After the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) refused to grant extension to then CEO of Yes Bank Rana Kapoor for two more years in September 2018, there was a drastic fall in the share price of DHFL at the stock exchange. The CBI in its chargesheet has said that DHFL’s erstwhile promoter Kapil Wadhawan diverted Rs 115 crore to a broker from their firm in the guise of loans through builder Sanjay Chhabria’s company with instructions to purchase DHFL’s shares at lower price for future profit.It was alleged that since Rana Kapoor had a good equation with the Wadhawan brothers, he sanctioned Rs 4,733 crore loan to DHFL through Yes Bank, which later turned into NPA. The Wadhawan brothers paid a kickback of Rs 600 crore in the guise of loan to the company of Kapoor’s kin, DOIT Urban Ventures, the CBI alleged.The chargesheet further said that on September 21, 2018, the share price of DHFL fell sharply from 615.60 per share to Rs 246.25. The CBI chargesheet said, “The fall in share price was caused by two reasons, refusal of RBI to grant extension of tenure of Rana Kapoor for 2 years and reported sale of DHFL’s commercial papers worth Rs 200 crore by DSP Meryl Lynch.”The sudden decline in price was accompanied by an inordinately high trading volume, with trading of 1.37 crore shares on the same day — multiple times higher than the average trading volume.The chargesheet said, “To take advantage of the low share price, accused Kapil Wadhawan contacted one Vineet Parekh, a fund manager, and requested him to ask Sanjay Dangi, another operator, to invest in DHFL shares. Kapil also assured Dangi that he would arrange capital for the transactions.”It was alleged that Kapil sanctioned a loan of Rs 678 crore from DHFL to Sanjay Chhabria’s Flag Industries India (FII) company for development of the clubhouse at Radius Group’s ‘Avenue 54’ project at Santacruz (W). The chargesheet says that on September 24, DHFL disbursed Rs 115 crore of the total loan amount to FII in blatant violation of the group’s exposure norms. Within minutes, FII transferred the entire sum of Rs 115 crore to Dangi’s Mentor Capital which, in turn, used the money for purchasing DHFL shares at the stock exchange.