Yes Bank’s Rana Kapoor arrested
Husain’s painting at centre of allegations on Priyanka
A court on Sunday remanded Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) custody till March 11 after he was arrested on money-laundering charges in the early hours of Sunday.
The ED, which had summoned Kapoor to its office on Saturday afternoon after raids at his and his daughters’ residences in Mumbai and Delhi, arrested him following several hours of interrogation.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has, meanwhile, begun a probe into Yes Bank’s affairs as officials started collecting documents on the matter, sources said Sunday. They said the officials have refused to comment on the development as the CBI wants complete secrecy before any search that it might be planning.
The sources refused to elaborate on the nature of the probe — preliminary enquiry or an FIR — or people arraigned, but affirmed that a formal investigation had begun. The CBI is looking into aspects of alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption, they said.
A report quoting ED sources said investments worth over `2,000 crore, 44 expensive paintings and a dozen alleged shell firms are at the heart of the ED’s probe.
The agency has also recovered documents that show some assets of the Kapoor family in London and the source of funds for their acquisition is being probed.
The ED has also stopped Kapoor’s daughter Roshni from taking a flight to London as she is required to join the probe, officials said.
Sunil Gonsalves, representing the Enforcement Directorate, said Kapoor had refused to cooperate with the investigation. But Kapoor denied the charge.
The Congress on Sunday hit out at the BJP and the media over links of a sale of M.F. Husain painting to Yes Bank chief Rana Kapoor by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi.
Responding to the charges Congress spokesman Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “In
2010, a M.F. Husain painting (which is a portrait) of Rajiv Ji was sold to Rana Kapoor for a sum of `2 crore. The entire amount was received in cheque and was fully disclosed in Income-Tax return of
2010 by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.” He further added, “Incidentally, only the other week, a painting of M.F. Husain has been sold by the ED and it has fetched a price of `13.44 crore.” He also said that instead of diverting the attention from Yes Bank issue the government should answer how the loan book of Yes Bank rose by `2 lakh crore and was government sleeping or complicit in it?
Since the moratorium on withdrawals from Yes Bank was imposed by the Reserve Bank of India the
Congress has launched a scathing attack on the Central government accusing it of ‘destroying the economy’.
In a press conference the party drew the attention of the jump in bad loans of Yes Bank from March 2014 to March 2019.
According to the party the loan book was allowed to grow, despite bank supervision by the RBI and government, at the rate of 35 per cent a year.
It also highlighted the spike in 2016-17 and 201718, the two years immediately following demonetisation. Is no one in the RBI or government accountable? Responding to the government the former finance minister Mr. P. Chidambaram had said, “Sometimes, when I listen to the finance minister, I get the feeling that the UPA is still in power. I am still the Finance Minister and she is in the opposition”
THE CONGRESS said the entire amount was received from Rana Kapoor in cheque and was fully disclosed in IncomeTax returns of 2010 by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra