Troubled lender
Yes Bank’s board has given sanction to prosecute its jailed promoter
Rana Kapoor under the Prevention of Corruption Act (
PCA).
This came following a requisition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which informed a local magistrate’s court of the development and filed a supplementary chargesheet in the Yes Bank fraud case earlier this week.
The central agency has charged R Anand, the then area sales manager, as well as a junior ex-employee of Yes Bank in the case, sources privy to the development told ET.
Last year, the CBI had sought the board’s approval after a special CBI court in Mumbai rejected its charge sheet against the banker under PCA as it lacked prosecution sanction.
The special court remitted the case to a lower court for cognisance under sections related to cheating and criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which attract lesser punishment.
Prior sanction from a competent authority is mandatory to an accused public servant to stand trial under PCA, as per an amendment to the Act notified in 2018.
“Once the consent was accorded by the board, the lower court was intimated and since the sections invoked under PCA attract punishment of over seven years, the case papers have been sent to the Sessions court. A supplementary chargesheet has also been submitted before the Sessions court and cognisance is awaited,” a senior official told ET.
The sanction to prosecute Kapoor was granted by the Yes Bank board, while that for Anand was given by the managing director of the bank, the source added. The agency is probing Kapoor and Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd’s (DHFL) promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan in an alleged corruption case of over Rs 600 crore.
“During the course of the probe, it was found that Anand and another junior employee acted on the advice of Kapoor and overruled the recommendations given by the risk management committee against loans sanctioned to DHFL,” the official added.
The committee, in its recommendation, had highlighted that the Letter of Intent was not made to the company that applied for the loan, but in the name of a different company.
The project for which the loan was sought did not have the requisite sanction from the local authorities, including MHADA, and the tenants were not evicted, the official added.
“These over-rulings are discussed on email exchanged between the three and the same has been found during the course of the probe which has been detailed out in the chargesheet,” the source said.
According to the CBI’s first chargesheet, in June 2018, Kapoor, the then head of Yes Bank’s management credit committee, sanctioned a loan of `750 crore on an application by the promoters of DHFL in the name of Belief Realtors Pvt Ltd to develop the Bandra Reclamation Project.
This amount was advanced to RKW Developers, a company controlled by Dheeraj Wadhawan, though the bank’s risk management team had pointed out multiple issues with the proposal.
The agency’s probe revealed that the loan was not utilised for the stated purpose.
Simultaneously, Kapil Wadhawan is alleged to have paid a kickback of `600 crore to Kapoor and his family members in the garb of a builder loan from DHFL to DOIT Urban Ventures (India) Private Ltd (DUVPL).
Rana Kapoor’s daughter Roshni is one of the directors of DUVPL. After deducting a processing fee, Rs 632 crore was transferred to RKW Developers.