Bombay High Court Dismissed Bail Plea of Rana Kapoor Family

The Bombay High Court dismissed a bail plea filed by Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor's wife Bindu, and their daughters Roshini Kapoor and Radha Kapoor-Khanna, and former bank senior executive Rajiv Anand, in the financial irregularities pertaining to the Dewan Housing Financials Ltd (DHFL) cases.

In her detailed order rejecting their bail pleas, Justice Bharati Dangre observed that the petitioners are accused of committing serious offences which have "resulted in serious dent to the financial health of the state" and defrauding the public at large.

The court further said that such "heinous" offences seem to be on "occurring in plenty", leading to "stultifying overall growth of the nationand caused tremendous impairment to the economy of the nation".

Moreover, the Central Bureau of Investigation had opposed the bail plea on grounds that the accused are influential and affluent persons, and the probable witnesses are employees who may be influenced, and evidence may be tampered with if they (the accused) are enlarged on bail.

The petitioners applied for bail before a special CBI court which declined the plea and the accused continue to be in judicial custody till October 1, after which they challenged the lower court order in the Bombay HC.

Senior advocates Mahesh Jethmalani, Amit Desi, and Aabad Ponda represented the applicants while the CBI was represented by its counsel Hiten S. Venegaonkar.

The CBI has contended that between April-June 2018, the Yes Bank had invested Rs 3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL and in return, the latter paid alleged kickbacks of Rs 900 crore to Kapoor in the form of loans to a company, DoIT Urban Ventures Ltd, owned and controlled by his wife and their daughters.

Kapoor was nabbed in March 2020 by the CBI and later also by the Enforcement Directorate and remains in custody since the past 18 months.