CBI searches 7 locations in Mumbai; Rana Kapoor’s wife, daughters named as accused

Mangalore Today News Network / Yahoo

Mumbai, March 09, 2020:  A day after CBI registered an FIR against Yes Bank co-founder and promoter Rana Kapoor under charges of alleged criminal conspiracy and corruption, the investigating agency carried out searches at seven locations in connection with the alleged Yes Bank scam case.

 

CBI sleuths carried out operations at the residence and official premises of Kapoor in Mumbai. Kapoor is alleged to have received kickbacks through a Rs 600-crore loan from a non-banking financial company (NBFC), which is an associate company of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), to DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Private Ltd, a company owned by Kapoor’s family, at a time when Yes Bank had loan exposure of Rs 3,700 crore to DHFL. Rana Kapoor was the MD and CEO of Yes Bank till January 2019.

Rana Kapoor’s wife, three daughters booked by CBI

In its FIR, the CBI has named five companies, seven individuals, including Kapoor’s wife and three daughters, and unidentified people. Besides Rana Kapoor, the agency has booked his wife Bindu, daughters Roshini, Raakhe and Radha. Kapil Wadhawan, promoter of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) and Dheeraj Rajesh Kumar Wadhawan, Director of RKW Developers Private Limited, a company linked to DHFL have also been named as accused, PTI reported.

Companies DHFL, RKW Developers Private Limited, DoIt Urban Ventures controlled by the Kapoor family, RAB Enterprises (lndia) Private Limited in which Bindu Rana Kapoor was director and Morgan Credits Private Ltd in which Rana Kapoor’s daughters were directors are also named as accused.

Rana Kapoor sent to three-day ED custody

On Sunday, a Mumbai sessions court granted a three-day custody of Kapoor to the ED. He will remain in custody till March 11. His daughter Roshni was also stopped from taking a flight to London as she was required to join the ED probe against her father. Roshni and her sister Radha are the directors of DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Private Ltd, the firm which received kickbacks worth Rs 600 crore from DHFL.

Depositors pull out Rs 18,000 crore from Yes Bank

Meanwhile, Yes Bank depositors pulled out over Rs 18,000 crore between April and September last year with experts not ruling out another 10-20 per cent more withdrawals from October 2019 to February 2020.

A Gujarat-based industrial group is believed to have pulled out its funds from the bank a month ago. Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam Friday said it withdrew deposits of Rs 1,300 crore on maturity in October 2019. Vadodara Smart City Development Company, a special purpose vehicle controlled by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) withdrew Rs 265 crore from the bank a day before the RBI stepped in last week to cap withdrawals last week.

RBI’s take on Yes Bank crisis

On March 5, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a moratorium on the bank, capping withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account, and superseded the board of the private sector lender with immediate effect. The central bank also superseded the board of directors of troubled Yes Bank for a period of 30 days “owing to serious deterioration in the financial position” of the bank. RBI appointed Prashant Kumar as Yes Bank administrator.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has assured Yes Bank customers of “swift” action and a scheme “very shortly”. “The resolution (to Yes Bank) will be done very swiftly, it will be done very fast… 30 days which we have given is the outer limit. You will see very swift action from RBI,” Das said.

As part of its reconstruction scheme, the RBI has announced its decision to permanently write down the Additional Tier 1 (AT1) capital raised by Yes Bank. This puts the entire Rs 10,800 crore worth of AT1 at risk, which includes mutual funds and pension funds of depositors.

Yes Bank stocks jump on SBI investment boost

Shares of Yes Bank on Monday zoomed over 30 per cent after SBI said it will pick up 49 per cent stake in the troubled private lender.

The scrip witnessed a sharp rise, spiking 29.63 per cent to Rs 21 on the BSE. On the NSE, it jumped 32.20 per cent to Rs 21.35. On the other hand, shares of SBI plunged over 6 per cent.

SBI on Saturday announced it will pick up a 49 per cent stake in Yes Bank for Rs 2,450 crore and clarified that all the deposits and liabilities of the reconstructed bank will continue in the "same manner".

S&P Global Ratings said quick resolution of Yes Bank’s insolvency will keep India’s banking sector contagion at bay, but as credit markets tighten there could be a possibility of wider economic pain in the country.

Working to restore all services, says Yes Bank administrator

RBI-appointed Yes Bank administrator Prashant Kumar Monday said the private lender is working to restore all banking services for its customers as soon as possible.

"I think for us, the first priority is the customers and how to provide the seamless business to our customers and like you must have seen on the very first day, all our ATMs were up for the customers," Kumar said in an interview to a TV channel.

He said, since Saturday evening even the ATMs of other banks were available for customers for cash withdrawal.

"And in our branches, our staff is reaching out to customers. They are dealing with their issues. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers who have really cooperated with us, who have shown lot of patience. And I think this is the faith in the brand of Yes Bank," Kumar said.

This is why PhonePe was down

Following the Yes Bank fiasco, digital payments were impacted as PhonePe, which depends on the cash-strapped lender for its transactions, could not operate. Yes Bank’s own net banking facilities have not been operational since March 5 evening.

PhonePe, one of the country’s largest digital payment platforms, is dependent on Yes Bank to process its transactions.

Opposition slams Centre on Yes Bank crisis

The Congress has described the Yes Bank “fiasco” as a part of the “mismanagement of financial institutions” under the BJP-led government’s watch.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram asked why nobody in the Reserve Bank of India or the government detected the spike in Yes Bank’s loan book by around 35 per cent per year in the last six years, and demanded a thorough investigation.

His party colleague Manish Tewari, a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, wrote to the committee chairman, Jayant Sinha, asking him to “convene an urgent meeting” of the panel and summon officials from RBI, Department of Financial Services, and Yes Bank to “explain the collapse”. He said the “collapse of Yes Bank is not a red herring, but another sign of our collapsing economy.”

This is why PhonePe was down

Following the Yes Bank fiasco, digital payments were impacted as PhonePe, which depends on the cash-strapped lender for its transactions, could not operate. Yes Bank’s own net banking facilities have not been operational since March 5 evening.

PhonePe, one of the country’s largest digital payment platforms, is dependent on Yes Bank to process its transactions.