PMLA court grants bail to Rana Kapoor in ₹200-crore loan case | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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PMLA court grants bail to Rana Kapoor in 200-crore loan case

By, Mumbai
Apr 12, 2023 08:41 PM IST

Former Yes Bank CEO Rana Kapoor has been granted bail in a ₹200 crore ($27 million) loan case by a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in India. The court said further incarceration without a trial cannot be allowed based on the Central Bureau of Investigation's words that investigation is pending. Kapoor, however, will remain in jail as he is yet to get bail in some other cases registered against him. The Enforcement Directorate is probing money laundering charges against Kapoor in connection with six loans, amounting to ₹200 crore, which Yes Bank had given to HDIL through M/s Mack Star Marketing Private Limited between 2011 and 2016.

Strap: Investigating agencies cannot be allowed to hold on to cases with the excuse of further investigation, says court

PMLA court grants bail to Rana Kapoor in <span class='webrupee'>₹</span>200-crore loan case
PMLA court grants bail to Rana Kapoor in 200-crore loan case

The special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court has granted bail to Rana Kapoor, former MD and CEO of Yes Bank, in a 200-crore loan case, stating that further incarceration without a trial cannot be allowed simply on the CBI’s words that investigation is pending.

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“Is it lawfully permissible to allow the CBI to consume seven years for filing the final report without any progress report and till then suspend the right of undertrial prisoner for an expeditious trial? This is serious,” special judge MG Deshpande said in his order on Tuesday.

Kapoor, however, will not come out of jail as he is yet to get bail in some other cases registered against him.

Based on a predicate offence registered by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing money laundering charges against Kapoor in connection with six loans, amounting to 200 crore, which Yes Bank had given to HDIL through M/s Mack Star Marketing Private Limited between 2011 and 2016.

In his bail application filed through advocates Vijay Agarwal and Rahul Agarwal, Kapoor claimed that he had not been named in the FIR registered by the CBI for the alleged loan fraud. Hence, there was no predicate offence against him, he said.

The court had called for a report from the CBI on the status of investigation into the alleged irregularities in the loans granted to Mack Star Marketing. The central agency, however, merely said in its response that their probe was still in progress.

To this, the special judge said, “Undue incarceration of the applicant (Kapoor) for two years, two months and three days, without trial, was the price he (Kapoor) has paid only on account of the purported gravity, magnitude and different nature of the economic offences.”

Kapoor was first arrested in March 2020 on money laundering charges linked to loans disbursed to HDIL promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang. Kapoor was later arrested in several other cases, including Mack Star Marketing’s, registered by the CBI and the ED.

Mack Star Marketing was a joint venture promoted by Ocean Deity Investments Holdings Limited (ODIL), a registered company under Mauritius law, and a private company owned by the Wadhawans. ODIL and HDIL held 78.09% and 21.91% shares respectively in the venture. The ED had claimed that through Mack Star Marketing, the Wadhawans had obtained the loans worth 200 crore, but used the money to clear other liabilities and credit dues obtained from Yes Bank.

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