Mumbai: PMLA court grants bail to Rana Kapoor, Gautam Thapar and seven others in property sale case

Rana Kapoor. File Pic

A special PMLA court granted bail to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, businessman Gautam Thapar and seven others in a case pertaining to the sale of a property at a prime location in Delhi.

Kapoor and Thapar, however, will not walk out of jail as they are in judicial custody in connection with some other cases. The present case pertains to allegations in the sale of a property situated on Amrita Shergill Marg in Delhi to a company owned by Rana Kapoor's wife, Bindu Kapoor, for which a separate FIR had been registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Mumbai last year. Later, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed a money laundering case against Rana Kapoor, Bindu Kapoor, Gautam Thapar and seven others based on the CBI's FIR.

After taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the ED in December last year, the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court had summoned the accused. Accordingly, the accused appeared before the court on Wednesday. They sought bail after marking their presence before the special court judge M G Deshpande.

The bail filed through advocates Vijay Agarwal and Rahul Agarwal said that Kapoor was never arrested in the present case and has fully co-operated with the probe. The ED has examined him, recorded his statement and he is ready to abide by any condition imposed by the court, the plea said. Thereafter, the judge granted bail to Rana Kapoor, Bindu Kapoor, Gautam Thapar and seven other accused in the case.

The ED is probing the alleged transaction between Thapar's Avantha Realty, Rana Kapoor and the latter's wife, and has filed a money laundering case after taking cognisance of the CBI's FIR. The FIR claims that Rana Kapoor, the then MD and CEO of Yes Bank Limited, obtained illegal gratification in the form of a property belonging to Avantha Realty Ltd (ARL) in a prime location in Delhi at much less than the market rate after Thapar's firm was given a loan as well as concessions in existing credit facilities by the lender.

The ED, in its charge-sheet, has alleged that Rana Kapoor, the then MD and CEO of Yes bank, connived with ARL to wrongfully gain or get transferred a property situated at prime location in New Delhi to a firm named Bliss Abode, which is owned by his wife Bindu Kapoor. In order to get the property, Rana Kapoor created a monthly lease-rent agreement between the two group companies of Avantha and got a loan of Rs 400 crore sanctioned from Yes bank by getting mortgaged the said property to bank. The ED probe further revealed that by projecting the accounts of the said group of companies as stressed accounts orA accounts, the said property was put up for sale by the bank.

When the account of ARL group company was on the verge of turning intoA, Bliss Abode (beneficially owned by Rana Kapoor) offered Rs 378 crore for acquiring the said property. The said property had been valued at Rs 550 crore, ED said. Thapar is currently in judicial custody in Delhi's Tihar jail after being arrested by the ED in August last year in a related case, while Rana Kapoor is lodged in Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai after his arrest in Yes Bank scam in March 2020.

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