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    CBI to seek Yes Bank board’s sanction to prosecute the bank's cofounder Rana Kapoor

    Synopsis

    The agency says Kapoor and his family received kickbacks of Rs 600 cr after Yes Bank invested Rs 3,700 cr in scam-hit DHFL's short-term debentures that were not redeemed.

    rana-kapoor-reutersReuters
    Mumbai: Central Bureau of Investigation will soon seek Yes Bank board’s sanction to prosecute its cofounder Rana Kapoor under the provisions of the stringent Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, people privy to the development told ET.

    The move comes after a special CBI court here rejected the agency’s charge sheet against the undertrial banker under Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) for want of prosecution sanction and remitting the case to a lower court for cognisance under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for cheating and criminal conspiracy.

    Prior sanction from a from competent authority is mandatory to an accused public servant stand trial under PCA as per an amendment to the Act notified in 2018.

    As the chairman and managing director of Yes Bank, Kapoor was regarded as a public servant under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

    The agency has alleged that Kapoor and his family received kickbacks of Rs 600 crore after Yes Bank invested Rs 3,700 crore in scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance’s (DHFL) short-term debentures that were not redeemed and sanctioned a Rs 750-crore loan to a DHFL group company when Kapoor was at the helm.

    An official said CBI could not seek sanction to prosecute Kapoor because the agency could not record the accused’s statement amid the Convid-19 pandemic. “A recent Supreme Court order mandates recording of the statement of the accused while seeking sanction to prosecute,” the person told ET.

    At the same time, if the agency fails to submit a charge sheet within 60 days from the day of arrest, the accused becomes eligible for applying for bail. Hence, the charge sheet was submitted, the official said.

    CBI had last week secured permission from a local court in Mumbai to record Kapoor’s statement, and is now working with officials of Taloja jail, where Kapoor is lodged, to record his statement.

    The same will be attached with the charge sheet and sent to the government-appointed board of Yes Bank to seek approval for his prosecution, the official said. “Once that (the board’s sanction) is received, the same would be communicated to the courts and request would be made for trial before the special court and not before the magistrate’s court,” the person told ET.

    Cases under certain sections of PCA are tried before a sessions court while those under IPC punishable with less than seven years of imprisonment are tried before a magistrate’s court.

    The special CBI court here had last month refused to take cognisance of the agency’s charge sheet against Kapoor, his daughter Roshini, and DHFL promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan.

    Making out a case of alleged criminal conspiracy between Kapoor and DHFL promoters, CBI in its first charge sheet filed in June had claimed that Kapoor’s Yes Bank had sanctioned loans to DHFL in a quid pro quo arrangement.

    It alleged that Kapil Wadhawan paid a kickback of Rs 600 crore to Kapoors in the garb of a builder loan from DHFL to DOIT Urban Ventures (India) Private Ltd where Roshini Kapoor was a director.

    The agency also said the Wadhawans and Kapoor flouted norms, and didn’t pay heed to recommendations made by the risk management committees of their respective companies to approve the loans.



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