IDFC First Bank fraud: Businessman Wadhwa invested fraud funds in real estate projects

Businessman Vikram Wadhwa has confessed to having invested crores of government funds deposited in IDFC First Bank in real estate projects. The claim was made by the Chandigarh Police before the court of Kaushal Kumar Yadav, Judicial Magistrate First Class, while seeking remand of the accused.

While attaching the disclosure statement recorded under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, the police claimed that Wadhwa stated that he was introduced to Ribhav Rishi, who was working with IDFC First Bank, by his (Rishi’s) father.

He opened accounts in a Sector 22 branch of IDFC First Bank. Later, Ribhav Rishi became the manager of the bank’s Sector 32 branch. Rishi was aware that he (Wadhwa) was engaged in real estate and property dealings and told him that they had accounts of several government departments, which had funds running into crores, and that he personally monitored these accounts.

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Wadhwa stated that he also needed funds for investment in real estate and wanted to earn profits by investing in the realty sector. Rishi proposed that he could make large sums from Haryana and Chandigarh government departments available to him without any interest. Wadhwa claimed that he told Rishi that he could not take such a large amount directly into his accounts because he was a real estate developer and a businessman. Rishi then explained that he had some companies, including Capco Fintech Services, RS Traders, Swastik Desh Project, etc, and funds from these government departments would be first transferred to their accounts and later to his (Wadhwa’s) bank accounts. He could then invest the money in his real estate projects, and, if required, they would make reverse entries back into the government accounts. Nobody would notice it as he managed the bank statements of these departments himself.

Wadhwa claimed that on Rishi’s instruction, he also approached some government departments to shift their accounts from other banks to IDFC First Bank.

They agreed on profit sharing, and he consented to the arrangement. From the year 2023-24 onwards, several crores were transferred from the accounts of Chandigarh Smart City Ltd, Chandigarh MC, CREST and various Haryana Government departments to the accounts of those companies and that of Ribhav Rishi, Divya Arora, etc. Later, those funds were transferred into Wadhwa’s accounts for investment in real estate projects. Reverse entries were made as and when required.

Over the past three-four years, Wadhwa invested the funds in residential and commercial projects in Chandigarh, Mohali, Kharar and other areas.

The investigating officer in the case told the court that in view of the statements

and circumstances, and considering the serious allegations levelled by the complainants, it was essential to recover the original documents related to this matter.

Fabricated bank statements of the MC were prepared and supplied to the civic body by the accused in order to deceive the government authorities.

Meanwhile, Vinay Yadav, advocate of the accused, filed three separate applications before the court, alleging that the accused was forced to sign blank, typed and handwritten papers. He had no knowledge of the contents of papers . He also demanded for recording his statement before the magistrate and declaring his arrest illegal. Yadav said the accused was innocent and had no role in the alleged scam.