The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday rejected bail plea of Rana Kapoor, founder of YES Bank, in connection with a money laundering case, according to news reports. The apex court said the case had "rocked the entire banking system". The court also questioned why the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is taking so long to investigate the Rs 3,642-crore YES Bank scam.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who was hearing the case, said, "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. 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.”
In response, the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) said, "There are hundreds of shell companies. The investigation is taking a long time because we are trying to get information from foreign countries."
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Rana Kapoor, told the 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 March 8, 2020. He has been incarcerated for over three years and has undergone more than the minimum sentence possible."
The Supreme Court said, "Once they get bail, the trial will never end.” The ASG then informed the court that it is a complicated investigation.
When the court said that it saw no need to intervene in the case, Abhishek Singhvi said that this is a never-ending probe and that the PMLA court is overburdened. Singhvi also added there was no loss of public funds and that Rana Kapoor demitted office in 2019. Following the refusal to entertain the bail plea by Supreme Court, Kapoor withdrew it.
Rana Kapoor has been imprisoned since March 2020 in connection with the DHFL money laundering case. The case relates to mis-selling of the bank's AT1 (Additional Tier-1) bonds to retail investors by the bank's officials. It was alleged that the bank and certain executives did not inform investors of the risk involved while selling the AT-1 bonds in the secondary market. The sale of AT1 bonds began in 2016 and continued till 2019.