Lagatar24 Desk
Mumbai, Dec 31: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai against Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor, his wife, Bindu Kapoor, and Avantha group promoter Gautam Thapar.
Rana Kapoor and his wife have been charged with receiving a Rs 307 crore bribe from a real estate firm via the purchase of a bungalow in Lutyens Delhi at half the market price. The ED claimed that the bribe was paid to the Kapoors in exchange for facilitating Rs 1,900 crore in loans from Yes Bank to the real estate firm.
According to the ED, the 1300-page chargesheet names around 10 persons and entities, including Rana Kapoor, Bindu Kapoor, Gautam Thapar, as well as Bliss Abode Pvt LTD in which Bindu Kapoor was the director, along with some officials of the bank as accused in the case.
The bungalow sold to Bliss Abode PVT Ltd is situated on a 1.2 acre plot in Lutyens Delhi. The bungalow was purchased by the Kapoors for Rs 378 crore and later mortgaged for Rs 685 crore with Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. The difference between the purchase price and the mortgage value is suspected to be the bribe amount that Kapoors received from Thapar in exchange for extending relaxations for stressed-out Yes Bank loans, including waivers, concessions, and additional loan approvals of more than Rs 1100 crores. In 2017, the bungalow was purchased.
The ED arrested Rana Kapoor in March last year in the Yes Bank-DHFL case, in which Kapoor and his family members received kickbacks totaling over 600 crores. Currently, he is in judicial custody.
