Indiabulls Housing Finance denies money laundering allegation, says never taken any refinance from NHB

Shares of Indiabulls group have taken a hit after Subramanian Swamy has accused the Indiabulls Group of laundering over Rs 1 lakh crore from the National Housing Bank (NHB). Indiabulls Housing denied the allegations, saying that the company has never taken any refinancing from the NHB.

Gagan Banga, VC and MD of Indiabulls Housing Finance, said, "What the NHB can do is to provide refinance to housing finance companies (HFCs). NHB does not lend to companies in general. So the only entity that could have possibly sought refinance as an HFC is Indiabulls Housing Finance.”

This was a case of bizarre misinformation as in its existence of 14 years as a housing finance company, Indiabulls Housing Finance has never taken any refinance from the NHB, noted Banga. "It is being spread over the last two-three months ever since we proposed the merger of the bank,” he added.

The total loan book of Indiabulls Housing is approximately Rs 87,000 crore, said Indiabulls Housing Finance in a press release.

“Even though we have already submitted ourselves to a very delicate due diligence process where we have already submitted all of our books to the regulators, this kind of misinformation keeps coming around. It is bizarre. I could not have embezzled more than the loans outstanding. If I have not taken a facility ever, how could I have done anything wrong with it,” said Banga.

“We have also put out the link to the refinancing part of the portal of the NHB. It is very clear that the NHB refinances HFCs or banks and how they do it, what is the procedure and process, all that is detailed there. That shell companies can potentially borrow from the NHB is beyond my imagination. There is no procedure and process around that. It has never been done and it is quite crystal clear,” he further mentioned.