The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police on Sunday arrested three people for siphoning off more than Rs 300 crore taken as a loan from Yes Bank to build a hospital.
The three accused have been identified as Yateesh Wahaal and Satish Kumar Narula (directors of Nayati Healthcare and Research NCR Pvt Ltd) and Rahul Singh Yadav, proprietor of Ahluwalia Construction.
As per reports, they were arrested from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. “The complainant was a shareholder in a company named OSL Healthcare Pvt Ltd.,” informed the police.
The Niira Radia connection
Interestingly, Wahaal and Narula are associates of infamous former lobbyist Niira Radia who is the founder and chairperson of Nayati Healthcare and Research NCR Pvt Ltd.
According to the police, the three accused had taken a loan from the bank for the development of a hospital, however, it was not used for the purpose and instead misappropriated.
Radia, after being caught in 2010 2G spectrum scam had entered the hospital business in late 2014. She floated four companies under the brand name ‘Nayati’ between 2014 and 2018. These include- Nayati Healthcare and Research Pvt Ltd (August 2014), Nayati Healthcare and Research Agra Pvt Ltd (August 2017), Nayati Healthcare and Research Amritsar Pvt Ltd (August 2017) and Nayati Healthcare and Research NCR Pvt Ltd (May 2018).
As per Radia’s LinkedIn profile, she began this movement to ‘transform the way healthcare is perceived in India.’ In a bid to provide ‘affordable healthcare’ to the masses, Nayati has multispeciality hospitals in Uttar Pradesh, as per the information provided in Radia’s profile.
Not just Nayati, Radia also has links with Ahluwalia Construction. Reportedly, it is yet another benami company of Radia which was used to siphon off funds.
Though the company bears the same name as Ahluwalia Construction Group which is one of the most reputed names in construction, it has no affiliation with this so-called company bearing its name.
Booked in 2020
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police in November 2020 had booked Niira Radia, her sister Karuna Menon and accomplices SK Narula and Yateesh Wahal in this loan embezzlement case.
The complainant, a Delhi-based orthopedic surgeon Dr Rajeev K Sharma had alleged that Niira Radia and others embezzled Rs. 312.50 crores through fictitious bank accounts in the name of well-known contractors.
It is imperative to note that Sharma had played a key role in the establishment of the 417-bed Primamed Hospital in Gurugram and the 90-bed Vimhans Hospital in south Delhi.
Sharma had further alleged that loan and equity money to the tune of Rs. 400 crores had been siphoned off while the condition of the Primamed Hospital had deteriorated. He called it an act of “brazen cheating” and claimed there is enough evidence to hold Niira Radia guilty.
Additionally, a trail of Rs 119.15 crore reaching Radia reflected the brazen loot carried out by her and her associates.
