Enforcement Directorate arrests Yes Bank promoter Rana Kapoor in DHFL money laundering case
MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on early Sunday arrested Yes Bank promoter Rana Kapoor in a money laundering case related with Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) after 30 hours of questioning. They will produce him before a court around 11 am on Sunday.
The ED which continued its searches at Rana Kapoor’s Samudra Mahal residence in Worli on Saturday, is investigating whether Doit Urban Ventures, a dummy company controlled by the Yes Bank founder and two of his daughters, received Rs 600 crore as kickbacks from the scam-hit Dewan Housing Financial Corporation Ltd (DHFL) for loans worth Rs 4,450 crore granted by the bank.
ED officials stated that Yes Bank had provided a loan of Rs 3,750 crore to DHFL and another loan of Rs 750 crore to RKW Developers, a firm controlled by DHFL. When they defaulted on payment, Yes Bank did not initiate action, and the ED suspects Kapoor and two of his daughters (he has three), who are directors with Doit Urban Ventures, allegedly received kickbacks from DHFL.
The ED suspects that this amount of Rs 4,450 crore is part of the Rs 13,000 crore allegedly siphoned off by DHFL through 79 dummy companies, with Doit Urban Ventures being one of them.
ED officials, who had begun questioning Kapoor late on Friday evening, continued their interrogation till morning and around 11am on Saturday, took him to the agency’s regional office in Ballard Estate for further questioning after which they arrested him in the case around 3 am. ED officials also searched the premises of his three daughters in Mumbai and Delhi and Yes Bank headquarters at Prabhadevi.
The statements of the daughters would be recorded and financial transactions of the Kapoor family examined, officials said.
DHFL former CMD Kapil Wadhawan is also one of the promoters of RKW Developers. The ED had in January arrested Wadhawan in another money laundering case it is investigating against the late drug smuggler Iqbal Mirchi. Wadhawan is currently out on bail.
During its investigation into the Mirchi case, the ED found DHFL had allegedly siphoned off around Rs 13,000 crore through dummy companies and over one lakh fictitious accounts.
ED officials said that the state-owned Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) had allegedly invested Rs 4,100 crore of its employees’ provident fund money in DHFL without taking the required approval. The agency suspects that DHFL allegedly laundered this money too through fictitious transactions. The ED has registered a separate money laundering case against DHFL and UPPCL employees.
Yes Bank was placed under a moratorium on Thursday and its board superseded, with the Reserve Bank of India capping deposit withdrawals at the bank at Rs 50,000 for every account.
