YES Bank crisis: ED widens probe, searches homes of Rana Kapoor's daughters

Widening its investigation against YES Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday questioned him for several hours at its Ballard Pier office in Mumbai, even as the agency conducted searches at residences of his three daughters in Delhi and Mumbai, said officials in the know. Kapoor’s wife and daughters were also quizzed for hours, they said. 

The questioning of the former YES Bank CEO was going on at the time of going to press. 

According to the officials, Kapoor’s wife, Bindu, and his daughters — Rakhee Kapoor Tandon, Roshni Kapoor and Radha Kapoor — own “several companies”, and allegedly received kickbacks from various corporate entities in exchange for the disbursal of loans by YES Bank. These kickbacks were through complex transactions involving the promoters of Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) and some more firms, the officials said. 

Initial investigation suggests that the loan amount of Rs 600 crore sanctioned by DHFL to Doit Urban Ventures, a company controlled by the family of Rana Kapoor, was actually the kickback for not repaying the loan to YES Bank. 

The private lender’s debt exposure was to the tune of Rs 3,700 crore in DHFL debenture between April 2018 and June 2018, and also in July 2018. The ED is also examining the loan documents of YES Bank and the terms on which it sanctioned Rs 750 crore to Dheeraj Wadhawan’s RKW Developers for a project near Mumbai’s Bandra Reclamation. The agency came across this transaction during its probe into the DHFL promoters’ role in financing funds to gangster Iqbal Memon (alias Iqbal Mirchi), in a money-laundering case registered against the housing finance firm and many others.

Sources said the agency might also register a separate case against Rana Kapoor, depending on the outcome of the search operation. However, for a separate case, a police complaint has to be registered for predicate offence to probe the matter under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).