Court denies plea to de-seal Rana Kapoor family’s firms

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court has refused to direct the CBI to de-seal the office premises of two firms -Morgan Credits Private Limited and Yes Capital Private Limited - owned by Rana Kapoor’s three daughters.

The firms are located in Lower Parel and had made a plea for their office premises to be de-sealed. The CBI had sealed the office premises on March 9 this year as part of their investigations in the Yes Bank scam case after conducting search operations. This came a day after Rana Kapoor’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate. The CBI sealed the premises to collect digital evidence from the devices there.

The firms told the court that the premises are immovable property and their seizure is not permissible, as due procedure was not followed. The CBI argued that it is permissible to seize documents that are placed in immovable property and, for that purpose, the office is sealed. The agency also told the court that after the digital data stored in the devices in the offices is collected, the premises would be set free. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, it said that the collection of the data is not possible. When the situation returns to normal, they would collect it.

Special CBI judge SU Wadgaonkar said, in his order, that in the present situation, no grounds exist to direct (the CBI) to release or deseal the seized premises in question.

However, he said that it is expected that the investigation officer make every endeavour to scrutinise or, if required, collect electronic evidence expeditiously and set free the premises.

Morgan Credits Private Limited and Yes Capital Private Limited are holding firms of Yes Bank and controlled by the bank’s founder Rana Kapoor. The agency claims that Yes Bank had bought short term debentures of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited