NE NEWS SERVICE
MUMBAI, MARCH 8
Roshni Kapoor, daughter of Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, was stopped at the Mumbai airport before boarding a flight to London amid a corruption investigation into the massive crisis that has hit India’s fifth largest private lender in the country.
Rana Kapoor, arrested on money laundering charges, was sent to the Enforcement Directorate’s custody till March 11 by a Mumbai court on Sunday.
The agency which investigates financial crimes arrested Rana Kapoor early on Sunday after hours of interrogation and searches at his and his daughters’ residences in Delhi and Mumbai.
Rana Kapoor was produced in a Mumbai court and a case of money laundering has been registered against him.
Sunil Gonsalves, representing the ED, said at the hour-long hearing the total proceeds of the alleged crime amounted to Rs 4,300 crore, and that Rana Kapoor had refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Mr Kapoor denied this. Zain Shroff, Kapoor’s lawyer, told the court his client had been made “a scapegoat” due to public outrage against Yes Bank after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) placed the bank under a moratorium and imposed limits on withdrawals.
Weighed down by an increasing pile of bad debt, Yes Bank tried unsuccessfully for months to raise the capital it needs to stay above regulatory requirements.
On Thursday, RBI took control of Yes Bank and said it would work on a revival plan. State Bank of India (SBI) said on Saturday it would invest funds to buy a 49 per cent stake in Yes Bank as part of the initial phase of a rescue deal for the troubled lender.
Last week Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Yes Bank had granted loans to entities including bankrupt Dewan Housing and Finance Ltd. (DHFL).
The bank is the third significant Indian financial institution to unravel in the last six months, following the RBI’s moves to take control of Dewan Housing and Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank.
