ED doesn’t oppose sale of Wadhawans’ planes, yacht

Mumbai: Responding to the application, seeking the court’s permission to auction seized perishable properties of HDIL, the ED Friday objected to the sale of vehicles of the Wadhawans’. The ED, however, said that it does not have any objection to the sale of a yacht and two airplanes owned by them. The case pertains to the Rs 4,355 crore Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam.

While the EOW had already given its consent to dispose of these properties, the ED in its earlier reply gave only partial consent. ED counsel Kavita Patil stated that the ED had no objection if the PMC administrator disposed of the two airplanes and the yacht. As far as other seized articles were concerned however, the applicant was required to approach the adjudicating authorities as per provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). After hearing the arguments, the chief metropolitan magistrate R.K. Rajebhosale reserved order on the plea till Monday.

The RBI-appointed administrator for the PMC Bank had moved the metropolitan magistrate court, seeking permission to sell moveable assets attached by the investigating agencies. Advocate Ramesh Dube-Patil, on behalf of the PMC administrator, had filed the plea, contending that mortgaged and hypothecated assets of the accused were inadequate to satisfy the loan along with due interest. Hence, it would be in the “interest of justice” to allow the administrator to dispose of the attached moveable assets. The application had informed the court that the accused had also requested disposal of the moveable assets through their letter dated October 16, 2019.

The EOW registered a case, accusing the PMC bank management of colluding with the Wadhaw-ans to conceal the scrutiny of loan defaults by HDIL.