The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday seized over Rs 2,203 crore of assets belonging to brothers Rana Kapoor and Wadhawan in connection with the Yes Bank case. The agency has claimed that the current market value of the assets, which include a bungalow in posh Amrita Shergil Marg in Delhi, is over Rs 2,800 crore. The seized assets also include real estate in India and abroad, bank accounts, investments, luxury vehicles, etc.
“These assets belong to Rana Kapoor, Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan and the companies they control, the ED said in a statement.
ED had booked the three for allegedly skimming funds from Yes Bank, which was on the brink of collapse earlier this year before RBI intervened and took over the bank. Rana Kapoor has been accused by the CBI and ED of taking bribes in real estate assets and investments in his wife and daughters’ businesses for fraudulently approving loans to unworthy businesses. A large portion of these loans were made to the DHFL, which is owned by Wadhawans.
According to the ED, the total book value of the attached assets of Rana Kapoor and its affiliated companies is Rs 792 crore (current market value Rs 1400 crore). These include a range of properties in Mumbai such as the independent residential building “Khursidabad” on Cumbala Hill; three duplex apartments on Napean Sea Road; Residential apartment in NCPA, Nariman Point and eight apartments in India Bulls Blue, Worli.
Apart from that, ED has also attached Kapoor’s Bungalow at Amrita Shergill Marg 40 in New Delhi which is said to have a market value of Rs 685 crore. That property, ED says, was purchased at a much cheaper price in exchange for loans to the property’s then-owner, Avantha Reality. This consideration was “for the extension of concessions, relaxations and waivers in the pre-existing credit facilities made available to Avantha Group (AG) companies and for the provision of new/additional loans to them by Yes Bank Ltd”. ED claims.
The seized assets of Kapil Wadhawan, Dheeraj Wadhawan and related companies total Rs. 1411.9 crore, the ED has said. These include 12 apartments in Khar (West), Mumbai; two properties in Pune and Mulshi in Maharashtra; an apartment in New York; two apartments in London; a commercial property in Australia; five luxury vehicles and 344 bank accounts.
The ED had registered a money laundering case in the matter following a CBI FIR. The FIR alleged that Yes Bank Limited had invested Rs 3,700 crore in the DHFL’s short-term debt securities from April to June 2018, for which Rana Kapoor and his family members received a Rs 600 crore bribe payment for robe loan.
In addition, Yes Bank had also approved a loan of Rs. 750 crore to an RKW Developers group company owned by Wadhawans for their Bandra Reclamation Project in Mumbai, but “the entire amount was siphoned off by Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan through their shell companies and was never used for the stated purpose.”
The directorate had previously seized bank deposits worth Rs 115 crore from various Rana Kapoor businesses and seized jewelery worth Rs 22.87 crore and seven high-end luxury cars valued at Rs 12.58 crore belonging to the Wadhawan family .
Kapoor and Wadhawans – who had been arrested from their hideout in a farmhouse in Mahabaleshwar during the Covid 19 lockdown – are currently in prison.
