YES Bank crisis: Former CEO Rana Kapoor's ED custody extended till March 20

In a fresh blow to former YES Bank CEO and managing director Rana Kapoor, a special court on Monday extended his Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till March 20. Kapoor was arrested by the ED on March 8 under provisions of the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act).

Kapoor, 62, was initially remanded in the ED custody till March 11, which was extended up to March 16. The banker was taken into custody by the ED as he was allegedly not cooperating in the probe related to the YES Bank which has been placed under moratorium by the RBI on March 5.

The special court extended his ED custody till March 20 as the investigating agency had sought it for further probe.

The ED had alleged that loans worth Rs 20,000 crore were given to various entities when Kapoor was on the bank's panel. The agency claims to have detected Rs 4,300 crore kickback money being funnelled into 30 or more 'shell' companies run by former Yes Bank CEO Rana Kapoor's wife Bindu Kapoor and three daughters - Radha, Rakhee and Roshini.

Also Read: Deposits in YES Bank decline 34% since September 2019

The ED official alleged the modus operandi of Rana Kapoor and family was same as that of Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank. When Chanda Kochhar was MD and CEO of ICICI bank, she was found to be extending loans to Videocon group, which in turn invested in the company of Kochhar's husband.

In the case of YES Bank, loans were given to different entities, which in turn allegedly offered loans to companies run by Rana Kapoor's wife and three daughters.

The ED has also held Rana Kapoor accountable for purported bad loans to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore at Yes Bank.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) have spiked to 18.87 per cent during December quarter -- the highest in the private banking space. In absolute terms, Gross NPA of Yes Bank surged to Rs 40,709 crore in Q3FY20 from Rs 5,158 crore a year ago.

Also Read: RBI Governor Das assures Yes Bank customers, says money is safe

YES Bank on Saturday reported a huge loss of Rs 18,564 crore for the third quarter ended December 2019, against a net profit of Rs 1,000.5 crore in the same quarter last year, due to a sharp rise in bad loans.

Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed a moratorium on the cash-strapped YES Bank, capping withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account, and superseded the board of the private sector lender with immediate effect. The bank is set to resume full banking operations from 6:00 pm on March 18. This means, YES Bank customers will be able to access all banking services from March 19 onwards.

By Chitranjan Kumar