New Delhi
The enforcement directorate has attached properties worth around Rs 2,203 crore in the Yes Bank scam including Rs 1,400 crore worth of property owned by bank founder Rana Kapoor and his family. Among the properties attached is a bungalow with an estimated worth of around Rs 685 crore, located on 40 Amrita Shergill Marg in Delhi and properties worth Rs 1,411.9 crore belonging to Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) group, said officials.
“The present market value of these assets is more than Rs 2,800 Crore and include immovable properties in India and abroad, bank accounts, investments, luxury vehicles etc. These assets belong to Rana Kapoor, Kapil Wadhawan & Dheeraj Wadhawan and the entities controlled by them,” an official statement by the agency said.
Other attached properties linked to Rana Kapoor and related entities include an independent residential building “Khursidabad” at Cumbala Hill; three duplex flats at Napean Sea Road in Mumbai, residential flat in NCPA at Nariman Point and eight flats in India Bulls Blue, Worli, Mumbai
Attached properties linked to the Wadhawans include — 12 flats and individual houses in Mumbai and Pune apart from properties in New York, London and Australia apart from 344 bank accounts, the official statement added.
The development follows a Hindustan Times report on July 7 stating the ED action in the case was imminent. The ED officials had indicated on condition of anonymity that a Central London property linked to Rana Kapoor as well as his fixed deposits worth around Rs 50 crore were also likely to be attached in the coming days.
The ED is probing Kapoor’s alleged use of the bank to extend loans in exchange for “kickbacks” as detailed in a chargesheet filed by the agency on May 6 this year.
Three London properties including a office-cum-guest house at 77 South Audley Street worth 11.5 million British Pounds and another residential property, both in the name of a company run by Kapoor’s daughter Rakhi Kapoor, Doit Creation Jersey Ltd, were on ED radar.
Several expensive properties owned by Kapoor’s family and companies run by them have been identified by the agency. It includes bungalows, villas, clubs, resorts, apartments, farmland, etc in Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, London, the US , the UK and other places. Value of these properties runs in several thousand crores and ED officials quoted above had indicated that these could have been obtained with proceeds from kickbacks for loans given by Yes Bank to undeserving companies.
In March this year CBI had registered two cases against Kapoor. The first FIR had alleged that YES Bank had invested 3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL between April and June 2018. In return, Kapoor was allegedly paid “kickbacks” amounting to 600 crore by DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan.
In the second case, CBI alleged that Kapoor and his wife bought a bungalow from Avantha group promoter Gautam Thapar at a much lower price than its valuation.
Kapoor is presently in custody in connection with a money laundering case being probed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the basis of the cases registered by CBI.
Both ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have already filed chargesheets in May and June respectively against the founder of Yes Bank and his family members.
The agency has pegged the size of the scam at Rs 5,050 crore and alleged funds were siphoned off using a complex web of at least 100 shell companies.
ED alleges that loans worth around Rs 30,000 crore, given when Rana Kapoor headed the bank as its MD-CEO till January 2019, have turned into bad loans and out of these, Rs 20,000 crore have become NPAs (non-performing assets).
