October 10, 2025

NEW DELHI: The drama heats up as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday revealed major financial irregularities in the accounts of Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd (IHFL), now called Sammaan Capital Ltd. Meanwhile, an NGO shocked the Supreme Court by saying the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) quietly allowed many big corporate governance mistakes by IHFL, ignoring the strong warnings from the securities regulator SEBI. Even though senior lawyer Harish Salve defended Indiabulls strongly and called the NGO’s claims a "blackmail litigation," the judges—Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan, and N K Singh—batted for transparency. They ordered a 'responsible officer' from MCA to bring all original IHFL records to court by November 19. The bench demanded, "We would like to see the original records of the ministry of corporate affairs relating to compounding of irregularities referred to by SEBI in its report. We would also like to know in which all cases you (MCA) have been so magnanimous in condoning corporate governance violations." Additional Solicitor General S V Raju and advocate A Venkatesh Rao told the court, "there is something seriously wrong in this case." The bench also asked the ED to explain the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) affidavit that pointed to possible money laundering by IHFL and to update on the probe steps taken so far. Prashant Bhushan, representing the NGO Citizens' Whistleblowers Forum, detailed an alleged conspiracy involving IHFL, real estate firms, and banks to mislead and cheat homebuyers. Salve dismissed these claims, saying the entire loan amount was already recovered and noted that seven agencies gave IHFL a clean chit. Senior lawyer A M Singhvi echoed this, insisting IHFL was cleared after thorough probes. Bhushan reminded the court about a recent decision by Justice Kant's bench, which allowed FIRs against seven real estate companies for abusing a government home-buyers subvention scheme. He accused Indiabulls and Vatika Group of similar fraud, pointing to SEBI's detailed reports on their wrongdoings. But the MCA supposedly ignored these and instead approved over 200 acts of misbehavior by IHFL. The ED’s investigation report spotlighted suspicious deals involving IHFL and major names like Yes Bank and Dewan Housing Finance Corporation, showing crime proceeds totaling Rs 5,333 crore. Other big groups linked to shady transactions include the Gautam Thapar-led Avantha group (Rs 307 crore) and Americorp, which took loans of Rs 9,480 crore from IHFL and used the money to inflate Indiabulls’ share price, earning profits of Rs 532 crore. So, what started as a financial check has become a dazzling saga of money laundering, fraud, and government leniency. With the Supreme Court’s firm orders and the ED’s probe under way, all eyes stay glued to November 19 for the MCA’s big reveal!

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Tags: Indiabulls housing finance, Financial irregularities, Ed probe, Supreme court, Mca, Sebi report,