ED gets Rana Kapoor's custody in fresh money laundering case

A special court here on Wednesdaysent Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor to the ED custody tillJanuary 30 after his arrest in a fresh money laundering caseof over Rs 200 crore registered by the Central probe agency.

Kapoor (63) is in jail under judicial custody sinceMarch last year after being arrested by the EnforcementDirectorate (ED)in a case pertaining to sanctioningloans tocertain firms allegedly against kickbacks.

The ED sought his custody after formally placing himunder arrest in Mumbai on Wednesday in the new case registeredunder the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The fresh case has been registered against Rana is inrelation to Mauritius-based joint venture company Macstar, asister concern of HDIL (Housing Development and InfrastructureLtd).

The central probe agency told the special PMLA courtthat HDIL promoters, Sarang and Dheeraj Wadhawan, who hadminority stake in Macstar, mortgaged a property of the companyand obtained a loan of Rs 203 crore from Yes Bank.

According to ED counsel Hiten Venegaokar, after theloan was sanctioned and credited into the account of Macstar,it was shiphoned off and transferred into the HDIL account.

The amount was later used for payment of certain loanswhich the Wadhawan had taken from Yes Bank, Venegaokar toldthe court.

Accepting ED submissions, special court judge A ANandgaonkar remanded Kapoor in the central agency's custodytill January 30.

In previous cases, among other things, the centralprobe agency is investigating Rs 600 crore received by acompany allegedly controlled by Kapoor, his wife and threedaughters from an entity linked to the scam-hit Dewan HousingFinance Ltd (DHFL).

Kapoor and his family members allegedly got benefitsworth Rs 4,300 crore through the companies controlled by themas kickbacks for sanctioning huge loans, the ED has alleged.

The disgraced banker is also accused of receivingbribes for going easy on recovery of loans given to some bigcorporate groups, which had turned into non-performing assets(NPAs), when he headed the lender.

Kapoor, in jail for nearly 10 months, has denied bailmultiple times.

Most recently, his bail plea was rejected by theBombay High Court on Monday.