Sell Assets to Repay PMC Bank Loans: HDIL Promoters to Enforcement Directorate
New Delhi: Facing imminent threat of more properties being attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Rs 4,335 crore Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank fraud case, the Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) promoters and directors have written to the probe agency, Mumbai Police and the RBI to sell the properties at fair market rates to repay the loans taken by the company.
Denying allegations of money laundering, Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan said that they wanted to “work towards the resolution of the matter in the interest of depositors”.
In a letter dated October 16, the Wadhawans, both of whom were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on October 3, wrote to the Enforcement Directorate, Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to “immediately take steps to sell the 19 mentioned assets mentioned at the fair market value and adjust it towards the principal of the loans, which was taken by HDIL and its group companies from PMC Bank.”
“Such action for monetization of these depreciable assets is required to protect the value of the assets to fetch a fair market value for the assets and to make available immediate liquidity to start the process of repaying loans to PMC Bank,” they said.
Giving full consent to sell the attached properties, the Wadhawans said: “it was in the larger public interest that the assets are disposed off to fetch a fair market price to repay loans availed by HDIL group companies”.
“To implement the process of monetization of assets, any approval, consent and necessary formalities required from us would be fulfilled by us and no hindrance would be created. We undertake and assure to extend full co-operation and assistance in the process,” they added.
Senior Enforcement Directorate officials on Wednesday told IANS that the agency has identified three hotels of the HDIL group in the name of the daughter and promoter of the group. Besides the hotels, the ED also traced 1,770.14 acres of land of the HDIL group in the Vijaydurg area in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district.
The officials said that the agency has identified four flats in the name of wife and children of PMC Bank’s ex-chairman S. Waryam Singh at Jay Prakash Road and four bungalows in Mumbai’s Andheri area. The Enforcement Directorate will attach the properties and lands of the HDIL group and the properties of the former PMC Bank chairman in the coming days under the charges of money laundering. (IANS)