The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday attached properties worth Rs 2500 crores in connection with the Yes Bank case. These properties belong to the bank’s founder Rana Kapoor along with Diwan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) promoters Kapil and Dhiraj Wadhawan, all three accused in the case.
According to sources, properties owned by Rana Kapoor and his family members in Mumbai, Delhi, London and New York collectively worth Rs 1100 crores have been attached by the ED. At the same time, the financial probe agency has attached properties owned by the Wadhawans in Mumbai, Australia, London and Pune.
Rana Kapoor and family
The agency is likely to file a second (supplementary) chargesheet in the case soon.
In May of this year, the ED had filed its first (primary) chargesheet against Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, his wife Bindu Kapoor and his daughters Roshni, Rakhee and Radha. As per this chargesheet, the ED claimed that Kapoor and his family members engaged in quid pro quo by offering suspicious loans to various entities including DHFL.
Adhar Housing Finance Ltd
In his statement to the ED, Rana Kapoor had said, “In 2018, DHFL had issued retail senior public debentures worth Rs 8,000 – 10,000 crores and an amount of approximately Rs 3,000 crores plus was allocated for purchase by Yes bank Ltd as per the bank’s Board Credit Committee approval.”
Kapoor had also said that a loan of Rs 1,200 crores had been sanctioned by Yes Bank to Adhar Housing Finance Ltd, a DHFL group company.
The ED also claimed that DHFL sanctioned a loan of Rs 600 crores against property mortgage to DOIT Urban Ventures India Ltd, wholly owned by M/s Morgan Credits Pvt Ltd, held equally by his Rana Kapoor’s three daughters.
DOIT Urban Ventures India Ltd
Kapoor had further stated that two earlier loans of Rs 300 crores each had been given to DOIT Urban Ventures India Ltd by DHFL, which were duly closed in August 2018 and a renewed loan of Rs 600 crores was granted. Investigators also found out that DOIT Urban Ventures India Ltd had mortgaged the five properties against this loan of Rs 600 crores.
However, Rana Kapoor was not sure if a valuation of these properties was carried out at the time of the mortgage. The value of these properties was inflated to more than ten times the actual value and had been further used to hoodwink banking regulators, the ED said in its chargesheet.
Belief Realtor Pvt Ltd
MD and CEO of Yes Bank after Kapoor, Ravneet Gill also said that the bank sanctioned a loan of Rs 750 crores to Belief Realtor Pvt Ltd on Jun 18, 2018, by Management Credit. Gill had inter alia stated that Belief Realtor Pvt Ltd is a DHFL group company controlled by Dheeraj and Kapil Wadhawan. The Committee (MCC) headed by Rana Kapoor had stated that this loan was disbursed on September 27, 2018.
Earlier, in August of 2018, the MCC had approved an additional loan of Rs 950 crores to Belief Realtors Pvt Ltd.
File photo of Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of Diwan Housing Finance Limited (Photo Credits: PTI)
Since the loan amount of Rs 1700 Crore required Board Credit Committee (BCC) approval, this item was required to be placed in the BCC, scheduled for August 28, 2018, but this item was not discussed in the meeting. Instead, a separate loan of Rs 950 crores was sanctioned by the MCC to RKW Developers Pvt Ltd on August 29, 2018.
RKW Developers Pvt Ltd
Shifting of loan to RKW Developers Pvt Ltd instead of increasing the loan amount to Belief Realtor Pvt Ltd was done as Rs 950 crores fell within the powers of the MCC, the ED pointed out.
While the documentation for the loan to RKW Developers Pvt Ltd was underway, the RBI initiated a special audit on the basis of which, the sanction to RKW Developers Pvt Ltd was cancelled.
BRPL Project
Rana Kapoor also told the financial probe agency that there were certain inherent risks with respect to Belief Realtor Pvt Ltd since the project was at a nascent stage and required approvals such as revision of letter of intent with higher FSI (floor space index) under new DCR (Development Control Rules), change in developer and consent from slum dwellers for rehabilitation.
The project involved the sale of premium residential apartments with a ticket size of Rs 20 crores and above whereas demand for premium apartments was slowing across the MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan region).
Large upfront expenditure with proportionately high debt financing whereas the large portion of internal approvals would be realized towards the latter stage of the project, given the fact the project could not be developed, the loan could not be serviced and has turned into an NPA (non-performing asset), Kapoor said.
In its primary chargesheet, ED said that the loan sanctioned to Belief Realtor Pvt Ltd shines a light on the criminal conspiracy between Yes Bank’s Rana Kapoor and Wadhawans of DHFL since Rs 750 crores was sanctioned to Belief Realtor Pvt Ltd (BRPL), a network company of RKW Developers Pvt Ltd controlled by Dheeraj and Kapil Wadhawan.
The same money was then rotated to DHFL by creating multiple layers, investigators have stated.
Wadhawans and DHFL
The Wadhawans are also accused by the ED in a case related to the Dawood Ibrahim’s late aide Iqbal Mirchi. Their properties are also booked in connection with UP Power Corporation Ltd case.
They were arrested in the Yes Bank case by ED in May of this year. The CBI had actually nabbed them from Mahabaleshwar on April 26.
Earlier in April, the DHFL promoters along with 21 others were found violating the lockdown by travelling from Khandala to Mahabaleshwar. They were booked and placed under institutional quarantine after which the CBI took them in custody on April 26. At present, Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan are in judicial custody and the ED could seek their custodial remand this week.
