Court directs ED to file reply on Avantha Group promoter Gautam Thapar's bail plea by Oct 1

A Delhi court on Monday directed the Enforcement Directorate to file by October 1 its response on the bail application of businessman and Avantha Group of companies promoter Gautam Thapar in connection with a money laundering case. Special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal granted three more days to the ED after the agency sought time to file its reply to Thapar's plea.

The court will further hear the matter on October 1.

The application has claimed that the accused was no longer required for custodial interrogation and no purpose will be served by keeping him in further custody.

The bail application moved through the law firm Karanjawal & Co., claimed that there was no possibility of the accused tampering with the evidence or influence the witnesses.

Thapar, 60, was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on August 3, after the agency carried out raids against him and his linked businesses in Delhi and Mumbai.

The ED was probing an alleged transaction between his company Avantha Realty, Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor and his wife, who are already being investigated under the PMLA by the agency.

The case of money laundering was filed by the ED after taking cognisance of an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The FIR lodged by the CBI alleged that Rana Kapoor, then MD and CEO of Yes Bank Limited, obtained illegal gratification in the form of a property in a prime location in Delhi at much less than the realisable market value belonging to Avantha Realty Ltd for sanction of a loan to ARL and extending concessions, relaxations, and waivers in the already existing credit facilities provided to Avantha Group companies and for advancing new and additional loans to them by Yes Bank Ltd.

The CBI had last year booked Kapoor and his wife Bindu for allegedly obtaining a bribe of Rs 307 crore through the purchase of a bungalow in a tony Delhi area from a realty firm at half the market price and facilitating around Rs 1,900 crore bank loans to it in return.

The CBI suspected that the discounted transaction for the 1.2 acre-bungalow on Amrita Shergill Marg in Delhi was a gratification to Kapoor through the company Bliss Abode Pvt Ltd in return for non-realization of over Rs 1,900 crore in loans from Yes Bank to Avantha Realty and group companies.

In June 2021 the CBI had booked Thapar and others in a fresh case of fraud of Rs 2,435 crore in the State Bank of India (SBI) and other banks to probe an alleged fraud case at the CG Power and Industrial Solutions.