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The CBI in its chargesheet, filed against Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, industrialist Anil Ambani and 11 others before a special court in Mumbai last month, has said that the two regularly held business meetings without any officials of Yes Bank present, who were subsequently told to process proposals agreed upon in the meetings.
The chargesheet, the cognisance of which is yet to be taken by the court, is filed in connection with two criminal cases filed on the complaint of the Chief Officer of Yes Bank in 2022, against accused including Kapoor, his wife Bindu, daughters Radha and Roshini, companies linked with them; Ambani, the then chairman of the ADA Group; and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL), Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) and others on the complaint filed by Chief Vigilance Officer of Yes Bank in 2022.
The accused have denied any wrongdoing.
“Rana Kapoor regularly held business meetings with Anil Ambani, the then Chairman of ADA Group. No officer from YBL (Yes Bank) attended these meetings. Following these discussions, Rana Kapoor used to instruct YBL officers to process the proposals for ADA Group companies as agreed upon during the meetings. Similarly, Anil Ambani used to direct the Key Managerial Persons (KMPs)of ADA Group’s financial companies…. to relax the sanction terms and conditions for loan proposals received from companies associated with Rana Kapoor’s family,” the CBI chargesheet said.
The CBI has referred to an email sent to himself by Kapoor, titled, “Briefing noting-Anil Ambani meeting”.
The CBI said that this email confirms that a meeting took place between the two on October 6, 2017, and on the next working day on October 9, 2017, Kapoor directed YBL officials to initiate proposal to subscribe NCDs totalling Rs 2,900 crore of three ADA Group financial companies.
Kapoor, who has been named in multiple cases, both by the CBI and the ED, is currently out on bail, with the trials in any of the cases yet to begin.
The CBI has said in its current chargesheet that during the relevant period, it was a common practice at Yes Bank, for Kapoor to be the sole decision maker involving major corporate clients, without consulting key managerial persons.
“In the present case, Rana Kapoor unilaterally decided to make an investment of Rs 2,900 crore in the NCDs of ADA Group financial companies within a short span of time, contrary to his earlier stand and in a manner that compromised the bank’s interests. He also directed YBL officers to prepare the Credit Appraisal Memorandums and Investment Committee Notes based on his decision. Furthermore, he instructed them to seek Board approval for extending ADA Group’s Group Borrower Limit (GBL) beyond 25% of the bank’s Tier-I capital,” the CBI said.
One of the alleged transactions the CBI refers to is a loan proposal of Rs 60 crore by Bliss House Private Limited, whose director was Bindu Kapoor. Her husband, Rana Kapoor, signed the loan application as a guarantor and a co-applicant, and it was processed by RHFL.
The CBI claimed that on instructions of Ambani, the loan facility was sanctioned at an interest rate of 9 per cent per annum with a repayment period of 60 months.
The CBI claimed that this went against the credit policy. The loan was approved by the then officials of RHFL- the CEO, CFO and CRO (Chief Risk Officer).
According to CBI, the amount was utilised for repaying an existing loan amount of RAB Enterprises, also linked to the Kapoors, which had been sanctioned by RHFL in 2016.
During the last hearing before the special court on September 23, the CBI had informed it that the documents and sanction required in the case is awaited, and the court has scheduled the next hearing on November 14.
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