By Anand Singh
Mumbai, Even as a Mumbai court sent Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor to the Enforcement Directorate custody till March 11, agency officials claimed that the former MD and CEO and his family members allegedly set up over 20 shell companies to receive kickbacks.
Kapoor was arrested by the ED officials on Sunday morning after over 30 hours of questioning in connection with a probe into money laundering case involving Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL).
A senior ED official on requesting anonymity told IANS: “Kapoor and his family members, including his wife Bindu and three daughters, had set up more than 20 shell companies that were allegedly used to receive kickbacks.”
He said the money received through kickbacks was used to invest in properties.
The official also claimed that the shell companies allegedly received kickbacks from the corporate entities, who were bank customers and had taken loans.
The source further said the ED has also recovered documents that show some assets of the Kapoor family in London. He said that the source of funds for their acquisition is now being investigated.
According to the ED source, DHFL owned Rs 3,700 crore loan to the Yes Bank, and Rs 600 crore fund transfer to the Kapoor family as part of the quid pro quo.
He said, “We suspect the payment of Rs 600 crore to Kapoor family as kickbacks.”
Kapoor has been booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and other offences days after the Yes Bank crisis erupted.
The ED suspects that Kapoor and two of his daughters, who are directors with Doit Urban Ventures, allegedly received kickbacks from DHFL.
This amount of Rs 4,450 crore is part of the Rs 13,000 crore allegedly siphoned by DHFL through 80 dummy companies, with Doit Urban Ventures being one of them.
The ED official said during searches, a lot of incriminating documents were found and that the agency grilled Kapoor on his links with DHFL promoters and other companies.
Kapoor’s alleged role in the disbursal of loan to a corporate entity and kickbacks reportedly received in his wife’s bank account were also under probe.
Besides the assets of Kapoor in foreign countries, the ED has also found that about 40 expensive paintings were bought by the Kapoor family, mostly from politicians.
As part of the probe, ED sleuths raided Kapoor’s home in Samudra Mahal residence in Worli area on Friday night.
The ED on Saturday also carried out searches at the residence of Kapoor’s three daughters in Mumbai and New Delhi.
The three daughters — Rakhee Kapoor Tandon, Roshni Kapoor and Radha Kapoor — were the alleged beneficiaries of the scam.
Earlier in the day, Roshni was not allowed to board a flight for London from Mumbai on the basis of the Look out circular issued against her.
The ED registered a money laundering case against Kapoor as a continuation of its probe involving DHFL wherein it was allegedly that Rs 12,500 crore was diverted to 80 shell companies using one lakh fake borrowers.
The transactions with these shell companies were said to date back to 2015.
An ED official said that the probe revealed that funds diverted by the DHFL originated from Yes Bank.
The ED has accused Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of DHFL of purchasing shares in five firms — Faith Realtors, Marvel Township, Abe Realty, Poseidon Realty, and Random Realtors — after which they were amalgamated with Sunblink.
The outstanding loans of these five firms, totalling around Rs 2,186 crore till July 2019, were allegedly appropriated on to the books of Sunblink to cover up the diversion of loans acquired from DHFL.
The ED’s action comes after the RBI superseded Yes Bank Board for 30 days and appointed an administrator, putting a cap of Rs 50,000 on withdrawal by account holders for a month.
The RBI said that the bank’s board was superseded “owing to serious deterioration in the financial position of the bank”.
Other alleged irregularities are also under the agency’s scanner including the one related to the alleged Provident Fund fraud in the Uttar Pradesh power corporation, the source said.
The CBI on Sunday also registered a case against the former MD and CEO of the firm, Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) as well as its promoter Kapil Wadhawan on charges of corruption.
The CBI has recently taken over investigation into the Rs 2,267-crore Employees’ Provident Fund fraud in Uttar Pradesh, where hard-earned savings of power sector employees were invested in Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL).
