In a decision that could brew another political controversy in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government has appointed IPS officer Amitabh Gupta as the new police commissioner of Pune, reports Indian Express.
The senior IPS officer Amitabh Gupta was accused of granting a safe passage by providing a travel permit to the scam accused Wadhawans during a nationwide lockdown on April 8, 2020. Earlier, he was the principal secretary with the Maharashtra home department.
#Breaking | Amitabh Gupta who gave the travel permit to Wadhawans during lockdown has been appointed as Pune top cop.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) September 18, 2020
Aruneel with details. pic.twitter.com/tQnF44CXFL
On April 10, Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, the promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) was detained in Mahabaleshwar as they were found violating section 144 during the coronavirus lockdown.
As per the Indian Express report, outgoing Pune Commissioner K Venkatesham has been sent to Mumbai as Additional DG (special operations), and Abhinav Deshmukh has been appointed as SP for Pune (rural).
Amitabh Gupta had described Wadhawans as ‘family friends’
Senior cop Amitabh Gupta had given a permit letter to the Wadhawans, in which he had described them as “family friends”. The letter had allowed the scam accused Wadhawans to freely move to their farmhouse in Mahabaleshwar from a guest house in Khandala despite a nationwide lockdown.
“This is to just inform you that following are my family friends and travelling from Khandala to Mahabaleshwar for family emergency. Particulars of the cars are given below,” the letter issued by Gupta had stated.
Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, the Promoters of DHFL are currently under two probes by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) one related to at least Rs 14,000 crore of fund diversion from DHFL using fake borrowers. Another case is pertaining to the alleged kickbacks taken by Yes Bank promoters in lieu of granting a loan to DHFL. The Wadhawans are also named in the PMC bank fraud case.
The Wadhawans and 20 others had reached Mahabaleshwar on the morning of 9 April and were travelling on a pass obtained under the garb of ‘family emergency’. The incident had caused a massive embarrassment to Shiv Sena-led Mahav Vikas Aghadi government.
The ED had registered a money laundering case against the founder and former managing director of Yes Bank, Rana Kapoor, Wadhawan brothers and Wadhawan brothers’ owned RKW Developers.
