A Mumbai Special PMLA Court has sent Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor to the custody of Enforcement Directorate (ED) till March 11. He was arrested around 4 am by the Enforcement Director after they grilled him for around 30 hours and slapped with charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act among others.
Kapoor was produced before the Special PMLA Court on Sunday morning and remanded to ED custody for three days till Wednesday. As part of the probe, ED sleuths raided Kapoor's home in Samudra Mahal residence in Worli over the past two days.
On Saturday, he was taken to the ED office at Ballard Pier for detailed investigations and overnight interrogation before placing him under arrest early on Sunday.
Yes Bank crisis
The development comes four days after RBI superseded the Yes Bank board and imposed stringent restrictions on its operations.
The raids specifically are vis-a-vis dealings with DHFL, whose founders are brothers Dheeraj Wadhawan and Kapil Wadhawan. Besides Kapoor, the accounts of his wife Bindhu, their three daughters - Rakhee Kapoor-Tandon, Roshni Kapoor and Radha Kapoor - are also under the ED scanner.
Incidentally, Kapil and Dheeraj's uncle - Rakesh Wadhawan and their cousin Sarang Wadhawan - are among the prime accused who were arrested in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC Bank) scam which collapsed in September 2019.
According to investigators, the Yes Bank founder's wife allegedly received kickbacks in exchange for a large sum of loans given to some big firms. The case is linked to the loans granted to scam-tainted DHFL, which turned sour, the investigators said. A loan of Rs 600 crore given to the DHFL is also under the scanner of the financial probe agency.
The ED is also probing the alleged fraud in the Employees Provident Fund in the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the Rs 2,267 crore EPF fraud where employees' money was invested in DHFL.
Customers can withdraw money from ATMs, says Yes Bank
Amid reports that customers are not being able to withdraw money from ATMs, the bank put out a tweet late Saturday night saying that depositors can extract money from Yes Bank and other banks' ATMs. "You can now make withdrawals using your YES BANK Debit Card both at YES BANK and other bank ATMs. Thanks for your patience," the crisis-hit bank tweeted.
Yes, Bank customers have complained that they are facing difficulties while accessing internet banking and using ATMs to withdraw money from Yes Bank after RBI's sudden announcement to supersede the bank's board and cap withdrawals at Rs 50,000 a month. Several companies having current accounts in Yes Bank said that they were unable to pay their debt and salaries to their employees.
