Rana Kapoor's wife & daughters get bail in Yes Bank-DHFL case; hearing in SC after 6 weeks

In a key development, Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor's wife Bindu and her daughters Roshni and Radha Kapoor were granted interim bail by the Supreme Court. While a special CBI court rejected their bail pleas in a quid-pro-quo case pertaining to Dewan Housing Financial Limited on September 18, the Bombay High Court too refused to grant them any relief. As per the CBI, Rana Kapoor had entered into a criminal conspiracy with DHFL's Kapil Wadhawan whereby Yes Bank invested Rs.3700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL from April-June 2018.

The central agency alleged that DHFL paid a kickback of Rs.900 crore to Kapoor in the form of loans to DoIT Urban Ventures, a firm controlled by the Yes Bank co-founder's wife and daughters. In its verdict on October 7, the SC bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh highlighted that the Magistrate had granted bail to the petitioners despite being charged under stringent IPC sections whereas they were denied bail after facing lesser offences in the supplementary charge sheet. It directed the Additional Solicitor General to file a counter-affidavit within 4 weeks. 

Thereafter, the court added, "Rejoinder affidavit be filed within two weeks thereafter. List after six weeks. In the meantime, the petitioners are granted interim bail with no specific conditions at this stage as the petitioners were granted originally bail/interim bail subject to certain terms and conditions by the trial Court which would naturally equally apply here." 

Rana Kapoor's arrest

Rana Kapoor was arrested by the ED on March 8, 2020, after 30 hours of questioning. The ED has alleged that Kapoor misused his position as the Chief Executive Officer of Yes Bank to benefit his daughters' companies. According to the agency, loans worth Rs.30,000 crore were given by Yes Bank when he was at the helm of affairs. Out of these, advances of Rs. 20,000 crore became NPAs (non-performing assets).

After the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yes Bank co-founder moved a bail application citing a threat to his life. The plea mentioned that the Yes Bank founder's existing medical conditions such as bronchial asthma, chronic immunodeficiency syndrome, severe hypertension, depression put him at a high risk of a lung infection if he contracted COVID-19 in jail. Additionally, it was argued that Kapoor needed to stay at home and get home-cooked food. But, he continues to languish in jail as this plea and subsequent applications were rejected.