MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate on Sunday arrested former Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor after quizzing him for nearly 20 hours, while the CBI initiated a probe against him for financial irregularities worth Rs 4,200 crore.
Among the charges are receiving alleged kickbacks from corporate entities for facilitating loans to them.
On Sunday, Kapoor, 62, was produced before a holiday court in Mumbai, where he reportedly broke down, denying any wrongdoing. The court sent him to ED custody till March 11 for further questioning.
ED sources said Kapoor had set up about 20 shell companies, controlled by his wife Bindu and daughters Radha, Rakhi and Roshni, to receive money.
According to CBI’s FIR, the scam started in 2018 when Yes Bank invested Rs3,700 crore in short-term debentures of the scam-hit DHFL.
In return, Wadhawan allegedly “paid a kickback of Rs 600 crore” to Kapoor and family members in the form of loan to DoIT Urban Ventures (India).
CBI alleges DHFL sanctioned Rs 600 crore loan to DoIT on the basis of mortgage of sub-standard properties having meagre value and by considering its future conversation from agricultural land to residential land.
According to sources, DHFL is yet to pay back Rs3,700 crore to Yes Bank. ED sources said they have trails of many such deals, done on a quid-pro-quo basis.
The kickbacks collected thus were allegedly used to invest in properties in the name of Rana Kapoor’s wife and daughters in India as well as in the UK.
The ED is also probing Rana Kapoor’s realty investments estimated at Rs5,000 crore. Meanwhile, Kapoor’s daughter Roshni was stopped at the Mumbai airport on Sunday, while she was boarding a flight to London.
Sources said the ED stopped her as she is required to join the probe in a money laundering case against her father.
The investigative agencies had already issued a lookout notice against the Kapoor family. The ED has already questioned his wife Bindu and recorded statements of Radha and Roshni, as well as Radha’s husband Aditya Khanna.
Meanwhile, the CBI has also booked Rana Kapoor and DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption.
The agency has alleged that Kapoor, 62, entered into a criminal conspiracy with Wadhawan for extending financial assistance to Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) through Yes Bank in return for substantial undue benefits to himself and his family members through companies held by them.
All banks safe: RBI
RBI on Sunday reached out to people, allaying concerns over the financial health of banks, especially after the Yes Bank fiasco, with the assurance that their money is safe and that it is closely monitoring banks.
“RBI closely monitors all the banks and hereby assures all depositors that there is no such concern of the safety of their deposits in any bank,” the central bank said in a tweet