Mumbai: A special court Wednesday extended till March 16 the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody of Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, arrested on money laundering charges.
Kapoor, while talking to reporters outside the court after the hearing, blamed the present management of the bank for its downfall, even as the ED told the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court that he had sanctioned loans worth Rs 30,000 crore to different entities during his tenure as its head.
Kapoor, 62, former MD and CEO of the private bank, was arrested by the ED here on Sunday under provisions of the PMLA as he was allegedly not cooperating in the probe.
Earlier, he had been remanded in the ED custody till March 11. As his remand ended Wednesday, he was produced before special court judge P P Rajvaidya.
The court extended his ED custody till March 16 as the central investigating agency had sought it for further probe. The ED told the court that loans worth Rs 30,000 crore were given to various entities when Kapoor was on the bank’s panel.
“Of this, Rs 20,000 crore turned into bad debts. We need to be probe in great detail how the money has travelled,” the agency told the court.
The ED said that the investigation further revealed that there are 78 companies owned by the accused and his family members and it needed to probe whether the money went into these companies.
The agency also told the court that it needed to ascertain whether he received kickbacks for these loans. His lawyer Satish Maneshinde argued in the court that the ED was under pressure to find a “scapegoat” after a statement was made by Union Finance Minister that “someone would be held responsible” after the crisis came to light.
“They were under pressure to find some scapegoat. Because of one statement of the FM they raided Kapoor’s house on bogus grounds,” he said.
Maneshinde claimed that when Kapoor left the bank in 2019, its market capital was Rs 93,000 crore. However, at present its stands at Rs 5,000 crore.
When Kapoor relinquished his position, there was only one per cent, so he cannot be held responsible, Maneshinde told the court. “He should not be made a ‘fall guy’ because the company has gone down. It’s not that because of him the bank has gone down,” the lawyer added.
The agency suspects that Rs 600 crore funds were part of the alleged kick-backs received as quid pro quo in the firm controlled by the Kapoor family. It is alleged by the ED that Yes Bank bought debentures worth Rs 3,700 crore of DHFL, while the latter gave loan worth Rs 600 crore to a company owned by Kapoor’s daughter.
“(Rana) Kapoor agreed to have taken Rs 600 crore. He used the amount to repay his previous loans taken in February 2017 and April 2018,” his lawyer said.
Till date, interest amounting to Rs 130 crore has been paid, he said. “Kapoor’s daughter, who was a director of the company, has given security which is not only sufficient to pay Rs 600 crore, but more than that,” the lawyer said.
Kapoors are in the process of settlement though it is due in 2023, he added. “That money was taken much prior to the investment made by Yes Bank in debentures. So how can he is accused of receiving kickbacks?” his lawyer asked.
Talking to reporters outside the court, Kapoor claimed that it was during Ravneet Gill’s tenure (as its MD and CEO) the bank “went down” and he (Kapoor) was in negotiation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials to take over the bank again.
The RBI had last week imposed a moratorium on the capital-starved Yes Bank, capping withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account, and superseded the board of the private sector lender with immediate effect.
It is alleged that DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd, a firm linked to the Kapoor family, have received the funds when Yes Bank had an exposure of more than Rs 3,000 crore loans to DHFL, already being probed for purported financial irregularities and diversion of funds.
The bank, they said, allegedly did not initiate action to recover theA-turned loans from DHFL and the agency suspects that the Rs 600 crore funds were part of alleged kickbacks received as quid pro quo in the firm controlled by the Kapoor family.
PTI