CBI seizes AgustaWestland helicopter from DHFL scam accused

The CBI has seized an AgustaWestland helicopter from the premises of builder Avinash Bhosale in Pune in connection with the Rs 34,615-crore bank fraud case involving DHFL, officials said Saturday.

The CBI has been carrying out searches at various locations for the past few days to locate assets acquired from the proceeds of the scam, officials said.

The federal probe agency had booked Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), its former CMD Kapil Wadhawan, Director Deepak Wadhawan and others on June 20 in the bank fraud case worth Rs 34,615 crore, making it the biggest such case probed by the agency, officials said.

It was alleged that they had cheated a consortium of 17 banks led by Union Bank of India by siphoning off Rs 34,615 crore bank loans by diverting them using falsified account books of DHFL.

They allegedly used shell companies and a parallel accounting system, known as 'Bandra Books', to siphon off public funds in DHFL by disbursing money to fictitious entities as retail loans.