Rana Kapoor, founder of the Yes Bank. File
| Photo Credit: AFP
A special court in Mumbai granted bail to Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor on Friday. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Mumbai, arrested Mr. Kapoor on March 7, 2020, for involvement in a ₹ 466.51 crore bank fraud. He was also charged with money laundering and eight other cases related to bank fraud. He secured bail in all the cases filed against him by the ED. Mr. Kapoor walked out of Taloja Central Prison at 7p.m after more than 4-years of incarceration.
Mr. Kapoor’s lawyer Rahul Agarwal said, “The case in brief is that Yes Bank Ltd was accused of misappropriation of the impugned loan amount and through Bliss Abode Private Limited (BAPL) had the sole intention of taking over the prime property at Amrita Shergill Marg (ASM) in New Delhi. Rana Kapoor had filed a bail application on the ground that the allegations in the chargesheet do not prima facie reveal his role in the case and no offence is made out against him. In the present case, Mr. Kapoor was sent to police custody on August 14, 2021, and had been in judicial custody since 21, 2021 in the present case.”
Criminal conspiracy
The court granted bail to Mr. Kapoor in the CBI’s case against him and Avantha Group promoter Gautam Thapar for alleged criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery to divert ₹ 466.51 crore in public money.
The other two accused in the case are already on bail and Gautam Thapar was released on bail without arrest. Rana Kapoor also stated that he was never the sole/final approving authority of the impugned loan transaction and the entire Management Credit Committee (MCC) involving other members had collectively approved the Impugned loan unanimously. Each member had a right to veto and no one objected to the sanction of the load despite an elaborate credit appraisal mechanism.
“Some of the members of the MCC were named as witnesses by the CBI but are named as ‘accused’ in the PMLA offence by the ED and their respective statements were recorded by the ED. CBI’s main allegation in the chargesheet is that the property at ASM was purchased at an undervalued consideration is baseless and reliance was placed on various valuation reports which were either pre-demonetisation era or the valuation itself was defective,” said Mr. Agarwal.
‘False claim’ in chargsheet
Mr. Agarwal also claims that the ED chargesheet falsely and mischievously portrays that Rana Kapoor was somehow obligated to disclose his wife’s interest in BAPL, and in the transaction with Avantha Reality Ltd (ARL), and that he failed to do so but Rana Kapoor duly disclosed to Yes Bank Ltd‘s Board of Directors that his wife was a Director of BAPL which is borne out in the chargesheet.
“The chargesheet makes out a vague case that three loans were granted by Yes Bank Ltd to Avantha Group (AG) entities prior to and after the sale of the property to BAPL, that were not used for specified purposes. No connection was drawn by CBI between such loans and the sale transaction of the property, and none exists. Considering all this evidence, the court released him on bail,” Mr. Agarwal informed.