ED summons top YES borrowers

ED HAS BEGUN TO LOOP IN ALL MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE WAKE OF ITS PROBE INTO ALL OF YES’ PAST BORROWERS

NEW DELHI: As the probe around YES Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor gathers momentum, the Enforcement Directorate is gearing up to summon the top borrowers of the bank.

The probe agency is preparing to issue a second set of summonses to Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani, and will also call Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal and Essel group chairman Subhash Chandra to join the enquiry.

Though the ED had asked Ambani to join the probe on Monday, the industrialist sought another date, citing health reasons. An e-mail requesting a response from the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group went unanits swered. A top ED official confirmed to Mint that “in the coming few days all major players— Anil Ambani, Naresh Goyal, Subhash Chandra, Peter Kerkar (director of Cox and Kings), Dheeraj and Kapil Wadhawan of DHFL and Sameer Gehlot of Indiabulls—will be summoned for questioning in connection with the YES Bank probe.”

The probe agency has begun to loop in all major players in the wake of its probe into all of YES Bank’s past big borrowers and bad loans.

The ED’S move to probe Ambani comes nearly a fortnight after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman named the Anil Ambani Group, Essel, IL&FS, Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) and Vodafone as being among stressed corporates that had borrowed money from YES Bank.

ED, as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), are also probing alleged money laundering by YES Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor, his wife Bindu Kapoor and daughters Roshini Kapoor, Rakhee Kapoor Tandon and Radha Kapoor Khanna.

KAPOOR TO STAY IN ED CUSTODY TILL MARCH 20

A special court in Mumbai on

Monday extended the custody of Rana Kapoor till March 20, after the ED claimed the case is a large-scale fraud involving public money.

“We are trying to find out the illegal transactions and the layering for such loans,” additional solicitor general Anil Singh, appearing for the investigative agency, informed the prevention of money laundering (PMLA) court. While the ED sought a sixday custody, it was allowed a four-day custody till March 20.

Kapoor, his family members and others are accused of laundering a total of ₹4,300 crore by receiving alleged kickbacks in exchange for lending heavily to big borrowers, loans which soured later.

(Shayan Ghosh also contributed to the story)