The Supreme Court has denied bail to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor in connection of a money laundering case which “rocked the entire banking system”. The court also questioned the Enforcement Directorate on why the probe of the 3,642 crore Rupees scam was taking so long.
“This case rocked the Indian banking system. Yes Bank went into difficulty and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had to step in to protect investors,” Justice Sanjiv Khanna remarked. “You have to take cases on priority where there are heavy stakes and a large number of persons involved. There is something wrong if the ED investigation is taking so long,” the Supreme Court said.
Replying to this, the Additional Solicitor General said, “There are hundreds of shell companies. The investigation is taking a long time because we are trying to get information from foreign countries.” The ASG also said that this is a complicated investigation.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who was representing Rana Kapoor, told the Supreme Court, “The bank was put in difficulty but that’s no reason to keep a man behind bars indefinitely. He’s been behind bars since 8 March 2020. He has been incarcerated for over 3 years and has undergone more than the minimum sentence possible.”
“Once they get bail, the trial will never end,” the Supreme Court said, coming down heavily. When the court said that they do not find any reason to interfere in the case, Singhvi said that this is a non-ending investigation and that the PMLA court is overburdened. He also claimed that there was no loss of money and that Rana Kapoor had demitted his office in 2019.
However, the Supreme Court did not agree with him and did not entertain the plea after which Kapoor withdrew it, marking more than 3 years that he has been in jail. He went to jail in March 2020 in relation to a DHFL money laundering case after ED registered an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report).
In July, SEBI sent a notice to Rana Kapoor asking him to pay Rs 2.22 crore in the case of mis-selling the private sector lender’s AT1 bonds and warned of arrest and attachment of assets as well as bank accounts if he failed to make the payment within 15 days.
