The Maharashtra government has suspended IPS officer Amitabh Gupta who was serving as principal secretary in the state home department with immediate effect and an inquiry has been initiated against him.
This follows the government receiving information that Gupta had helped builders Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan who are being investigated in multiple fraud cases move from Mumbai to their farmhouse in Mahableshwar at a time of total lockdown. The two were detained at their farmhouse in the hill station after they were caught violating the coronavirus lockdown with more than 20 family members.
The Wadhawans who are at the centre of Rs 7000 crore fraud being investigated by authorities, were among a family group of 23 people who drove up. The police acted on a tip off alerted by local people and quarantined all of them there.
The family drove to the town, over 250 km from Mumbai, in five cars on Wednesday night. They had passes issued by IPS officer Gupta who wrote on his official letter head that “they are well known to me and are family friends” and travelling from “Khandala to Mahableshwar for a family emergency”. He called their trip a “family emergency” in an official letter.
According to the police, the Wadhawans took their cooks and servants and also an Italian bodyguard. The police have filed a case against all of them.
Brothers Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan had lookout notices in their name by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and are accused in the Yes Bank and DHFL fraud cases. The CBI is considering taking them into custody once their quarantine ends.
