Yes Bank: ED widens probe, searches Kapoor's 3 daughters' residences

Mumbai/New Delhi, March 7 (IANS) While the Enforcement Directorate kept grilling Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor in Mumbai, the central probe agency widened its probe and carried out searches at the residence of his three daughters.

An ED source said the central probe agency has expanded its probe in the Yes Bank scam and is carrying out searches at three locations in Mumbai and New Delhi.

The source said the searches are being carried out at the residential premises of all three daughters -- Rakhee Kapoor Tandon, Roshni Kapoor and Radha Kapoor.

The source said the residential premises of Kapoor's daughters are being searched as they were alleged beneficiaries of the scam.

The action comes in the wake of the Yes Bank crisis that grew on Thursday night. On Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) superseded the Yes Bank board for 30 days and appointed an administrator while putting a cap of Rs 50,000 on withdrawal by account holders for a month. Following the crisis, the ED registered a case of money laundering against Kapoor and others.

The agency's action comes at a time, when Kapoor is being grilled by the agency sleuths at his office in Mumbai since afternoon.

The ED on Friday night raided Yes Bank's founder residence and also grilled him at his Samudra Mahal residence in Mumbai. ED officials said Kapoor was questioned throughout the night, with some rest time allowed in between.

A senior ED official connected with the probe told IANS: "Kapoor will be questioned about Yes Bank loans to Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL)."

The official said during searches a lot of incriminating documents were found and the agency wanted to grill him on his links with DHFL promoters and other companies.

Kapoor's alleged role in the disbursal of loan to a corporate entity and kickbacks reportedly received in her wife's bank account are also under probe.

The ED had filed a money laundering case against Kapoor and raided his residence, apart from issuing a look-out circular so that he does not flee the country.

The ED registered a money laundering case against Kapoor as a continuation of its probe against the DHFL wherein it was allegedly that Rs 12,500 crore was diverted to 80 shell companies using one lakh fake borrowers. The transactions with these shell companies are said to date back to 2015.

An ED official in New Delhi told IANS that the DHFL probe revealed that funds diverted by the DHFL originated from Yes Bank. He said that the searches at Kapoor's residence on Friday night were meant to find out any irregularity in grant of loans to the DHFL by the Yes Bank.

The ED has accused Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of DHFL of purchasing shares in five firms -- Faith Realtors, Marvel Township, Abe Realty, Poseidon Realty, and Random Realtors -- after which they were amalgamated with Sunblink.

The outstanding loans of these five firms, totalling around Rs 2,186 crore till July 2019, were allegedly appropriated on to the books of Sunblink to cover up the diversion of loans acquired from DHFL.

The ED's action comes after the RBI superseded Yes Bank Board for 30 days and appointed an administrator, putting a cap of Rs 50,000 on withdrawal by account holders for a month.

The RBI said that the bank's board was superseded "owing to serious deterioration in the financial position of the bank".

Former SBI CFO Prashant Kumar was appointed as administrator of Yes Bank, which has over 1,000 branches and 1,800-plus ATMs across the country. On Thursday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the bank was under watch since 2017 and developments relating to it were monitored on a day-to-day basis.