Yes Bank: Wadhawan's skip ED summons

DHFL promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan on Tuesday skipped appearing before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering probe against Yes Bank promoter Rana Kapoor and others, officials said.

The agency had summoned the brothers at its Mumbai office in order to question them about their dealings with the crisis-hit bank, arrested banker Kapoor and his family.

It is expected that the ED may now issue them new summons for appearance and may also move a court seeking cancellation of the bail granted to Kapil Wadhawan in another case being probed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The DHFL (Dewan Housing Finance Limited) group has a loan amount of about 3,700 crore taken from Yes Bank that is under "stress".

The ED is probing alleged quid pro quo between the two business groups and their promoters.

The Wadhawan's are also being probed by the ED in an another criminal case filed under the PMLA and is linked to late gangster Iqbal Mirchi.

DHFL CMD Kapil Wadhawan was also arrested by the agency in this case of alleged extortion and money laundering, but he is now out on bail.

The central probe agency has also summoned top corporate honchos, including Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani, Essel Group promoter Subhash Chandra, Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, Indiabulls chairman Sameer Gehlaut, to appear before it for questioning this week in connection with probe in the Rana Kapoor case.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in a press conference on March 6 that the Anil Ambani Group, Essel, ILFS, DHFL and Vodafone were among the stressed corporates Yes Bank had exposure to.

Rana Kapoor, 62, was on Monday again sent to the ED custody till March 20 by a Mumbai court.

A total of 44 companies belonging to 10 large business groups reportedly accounted for bad loans of Rs 34,000 crore of Yes Bank.

Other companies on this list include Dewan Housing Finance Corporation, Cox & Kings, and Bharat Infra.