MUMBAI: Additional chief secretary (finance) Manoj Saunik in a report submitted on Sunday “exonerated” principal secretary (home) Amitabh Gupta, who had helped the scam accused Wadhwan brothers and their family go to Mahabaleshwar despite the lockdown. Saunik recommended that the officer be cautioned.A day after Gupta had issued a one-page letter to 23 members of the Wadhwan family to enable them to travel to the hill station house, there was a nationwide uproar. Home minister Anil Deshmukh , in consultation with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray , sent Gupta on leave and simultaneously asked Saunik to initiate an inquiry.It was found that Gupta had granted permission to the Wadhwans without any authority and he had mentioned in his letter that they were his family friends.DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan and his brother Dheeraj Wadhawan alias Baba Dewan are accused in a fraud case involving Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor.In his three-page report submitted to additional chief secretary (home) Sanjay Kumar, Saunik said:. “The mitigating circumstances he cites in his favour are the hardship faced by people, his proclivity to humanitarian intervention and that his letter is merely an appeal for facilitation and not a direction to any specific authority. All these facts are borne out by the available evidence. Hence merely on these issues, Gupta can be exonerated with a caution that in future he should be more careful in scrutinising the background of the person appealing for compassionate intervention,” Saunik said.Saunik observed that the question whether Gupta had business links with Dheeraj and whether his actions emanated from mala fide intentions could not be answered by the present inquiry. He said it required forensic and historical investigation, and it was up to the government to decide upon such a line of inquiry.Home minister Deshmukh said he had seen the report and. as per recommendations, there would be an independent inquiry. “Now, from the statement of Gupta before the one-man inquiry committee and also from the report, that no politician pressurised him to issue the letter, all the allegations were baseless,” Deshmukh said, referring to opposition claims of political pressure on Gupta to favour the Wadhawans.He said the report will be submitted to the CM.