Yes Bank’s former MD Rana Kapoor denied bail in money laundering case

Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal denied relief to Kapoor, observing that prima facie “Kapoor appears to be the controlling mind of the fraudulent transaction along with one Gautam Thapar, as both were at the apex of corporate ladder qua Yes Bank and Avantha Group respectively”.

The court said that it “appears he was also one of the main beneficiary of this sham transaction”.

“It is also apparent that he may be the man pulling the strings or the controlling mind or master mind or head controlling the present transaction prima facie, whereas the other accused persons arraigned in the present complaint at different levels of the corporate pyramid, may only have been working as hands, as they were all employees either of Avantha Group or Yes Bank, where they were working in different capacities,” the court said.

Rana’s lawyers had argued that the investigation was documentary in nature and there was no fruitful purpose by keeping him in custody.

However, the court did not agree with this submission and said, “Kapoor was in pole position in Yes Bank and was the main person who was instrumental in getting through the transaction in question despite knowing it was sham. Therefore, there are strong chances that he may tamper with the evidence.”

Rana’s bail was opposed by ED’s special public prosecutor N K Matta, who told the court that Kapoor was instrumental in the generation of the “proceeds of crime”.

It also observed that these offences cause a “serious threat to the financial health of the country”.

The court, however, granted bail to 15 other accused — B Hariharan, Abishek S Pandey, Rajendra Kumar Mangal, Raghubir Kumar Sharma, Anil Bhargava, Tapsi Mahajan, Surendra Kumar Khandelwal, Sonu Chadha, Harsh Gupta, Ramesh Sharma, Pawan Kumar Agarwal, Amit Mamtani, Ashish Agarwal, Amit Kumar, and Vinod Bahety — in the case.