Lavasa and LIC Housing have no links

"Lavasa construction company has nothing to do with LIC Housing Finance -- we have not taken a single penny from them," HCC chairman and managing director Ajit Gulabchand said today.

He denied any wrongdoing or involvement with Lavasa construction in the housing finance scam, in which LIC Housing Finance's chief R R Nair and a few public sector bank officials have been arrested by the CBI on November 24.

Gulabchand said, however, that HCC was fully co-operating with the CBI in its investigations.

CBI has also arrested Rajesh Sharma, chief executive of Money Matters, a firm that the investigating agency said had either bribed or attempted to bribe the officials to get loans sanctioned for many companies, including Lavasa.

Lavasa is considered to be India's first planned hill city located between Mumbai and Pune. Recently, Lavasa Corporation obtained market regulator Sebi's permission to file draft red herring prospectus for its public issue of around Rs 2,000-crore.

Gulabchand said that using a company like Money Matters was a "well-accepted practice" in the industry. He said Money Matters secured around Rs 200-crore out of HCC's Rs 800-cr long-term debt.