YES BANK EX-CEO RANA KAPOOR WALKS OUT OF TALOJA JAIL ON BAIL AFTER 4 YEARS

MUMBAI: Former Yes Bank chief executive officer Rana Kapoor stepped out of Taloja jail on Friday evening, hours after a special court granted him bail in a case registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with allegations that he took a lavish bungalow on New Delhi’s Amrita Shergil Marg for much less its market price as “bribe” in exchange for loan fraud.

Rana Kapoor was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in March 2020 in a money laundering case related to alleged fraudulent loans advanced to Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL). Kapoor was subsequently booked in seven more criminal cases relating to loans extended by the private bank when he was at the helm of affairs.

Special CBI judge MG Deshpande on Friday granted bail to Kapoor in the Avantha Realty case. Advocate Rahul Agarwal, appearing for Rana Kapoor, said Kapoor walked out of Taloja jail, where he had been lodged at around 7pm after completion of the release formalities.

CBI registered the case in March 2020 against Rana Kapoor, his wife Bindu, Avantha Group promoter and industrialist Gautam Thapar, Bliss Abode Pvt Ltd, and others, alleging that Kapoor misused his official position as the then CEO of Yes Bank, and acquired a prime property at Delhi’s upscale Amrita Shergil Marg, belonging to a mortgage with Yes Bank, at a lesser price than its market value.

The agency claimed that the market value of the property, owned by Thapar’s Avantha Realty Ltd and mortgaged with Yes Bank as collateral for a ₹400 crore loan advanced to an Avantha Group company, was about ₹550 crore. But it was acquired by M/s. Bliss Abode Pvt. Ltd., a firm in which Kapoor’s wife Bindu is a director and authorised signatory, for a total consideration of ₹378 crore.

Besides, CBI claimed the sale proceeds were not used to clear the entire loan, and the loan was later declared as a non-performing asset. “Against this favour, the then MD and CEO of Yes Bank extended an additional loan of ₹1,360 crore (approximately) to some other company of the Avantha Group,” the CBI said.

“The said loans were never utilised for the purpose for which they were given, and the borrowers were allowed to divert the funds for ever-greening of existing loans of the group companies,” a CBI officer added.

In his request for bail, Kapoor contended that the CBI charge sheet in the case did not prima facie reveal his role in the case and no offence was made out against him. Besides, two other accused in the case were already out on bail.

Kapoor also reasoned that he was never the sole or final approving authority for the loan transactions and the entire management credit committee (MCC), involving other members, had collectively approved the loans unanimously. Each member had a right to veto and no one objected to the loan sanction despite an elaborate credit appraisal mechanism.

Kapoor also pointed that some MCC members were listed as witnesses by CBI but are named as accused in a PMLA case registered by ED.

The Bombay high court previously granted bail to Gautam Thapar in the CBI case in March 2022, around a month after he and Kapoor were granted bail by the special PMLA court in a connected money laundering case initiated against them by the Enforcement Directorate.

Yes Bank – DHFL Loan Fraud

According to the CBI, between April and June 2018, Yes Bank invested around ₹4,727 crore in short-term non-convertible debentures and Masala Bonds of DHFL. The bank had also sanctioned a term loan of ₹750 crore to a DHFL group firm. In return, Rana Kapoor is alleged too have received a kickback of ₹600 crore from DHFL in the form of a loan to his family firm, Do It Urban Ventures (India) Private Limited, CBI said.

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2024-04-19T15:52:16Z dg43tfdfdgfd