Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, arrested in a money laundering case, was remanded in judicial custody till April 2 by a Mumbai court on Friday as the investigation agency did not seek his further remand.
Kapoor, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) earlier this month, is “easily susceptible” to getting infected by the coronavirus in prison, his lawyer told the court.
As his earlier remand ended, the ED produced the 62- year-old Kapoor, former MD and CEO of the beleaguered Yes Bank, before the court.
The investigating officer of the case had recorded Kapoor’s statement under the PMLA when he was first interrogated at his upscale residence in ‘Samudra Mahal’ complex in Worli area in Mumbai.
He was brought to the ED office for a fresh round of questioning.
The ED action came after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a moratorium on Yes Bank, capping withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account, and superseded the board of the company with immediate effect.
As per the RBI’s draft reconstruction scheme, State Bank of India will pick up 49 per cent stake in the crisis-ridden Yes Bank under a government-approved bailout plan.
The central probe agency is primarily investigating Kapoor, his wife and three daughters over a Rs 600 crore fund received by a firm allegedly “controlled” by them from an entity linked to the scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), official sources said.
The Kapoors linked firm, DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd, is alleged to have received the funds when Yes Bank had an exposure of more than Rs 3,000 crore loans to DHFL.
The bank, they said, allegedly did not initiate action to recover the NPA-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.