Cobrapost accuses DHFL of siphoning Rs 31,000 crore of public money

A news website on Tuesday claimed that primary promoters of DHFL, a housing finance institution, siphoned off over Rs 31,000 crore of public money through loans and advances to shell companies and other means to create private wealth for themselves. Calling it the "biggest banking scam in Indian history", the Cobrapost website, known for journalistic sting operations, alleged that Dewan Housing Finance Corp Ltd's (DHFL) promoters routed money through dubious companies and parked it outside India to acquire assets. The probe alleged that the company under-reported Rs 20 crore donation to the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP). "The scam has been pulled off mainly by sanctioning and disbursing astronomical amounts in secured and unsecured loans to dubious shell/pass-through companies related to DHFL's own primary stakeholders KapilWadhawan, ArunaWadhawan and DheerajWadhawan through their proxies and associates, which have in turn passed the money on to companies controlled by the Wadhawans," Cobrapost editor AniruddhaBahal told a press conference here.