Bombay high court asks PMLA court to pass orders on ED’s plaint against ex-Yes Bank chief

Mumbai, May 22: The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday directed the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court to pass appropriate orders on the prosecution complaint lodged by the enforcement directorate (ED) against Rana Kapoor, former chief executive officer (CEO) of YES Bank.

Justice SK Shinde requested the special court to pre-pone the scheduled date in the matter to May 23, peruse the prosecution complaint and pass an appropriate order on it, The Hindustan Times reported.

The directive came following a plea filed by ED, after the agency moved HC, challenging the May 6 order of the special court to handover a copy of the prosecution complaint along with its annexures to Kapoor. 

ED’s counsel Hiten Venegaonkar submitted that the special court did not take cognisance of its prosecution complaint on May 6 and it could not have ordered the agency to give the documents to the accused without first taking cognisance of their complaint.

Kapoor also moved HC seeking a declaration that his detention in custody from May 6 onwards was illegal, in as much as, the special court could not have remanded him to custody, without first taking cognisance of the prosecution complaint.

In pursuance of the first information report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on March 7, ED registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) the next day against Kapoor and others and started investigations under PMLA.

Accordingly, ED arrested Kapoor on March 8 and produced him before the special PMLA court. He was initially remanded to ED’s custody till March 11 and thereafter sent to judicial custody.

The YES Bank founder is accused of misusing his position as the bank’s CEO for obtaining undue benefits. He allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with the Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) promoters Dheeraj and Kapil Wadhawan for extending financial assistance to DHFL through YES Bank in return for “substantial undue benefits” to himself and his family members through companies held by them. He allegedly received kickbacks worth ₹600 crore from the Wadhawan brothers.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/bombay-high-court-asks-pmla-court-to-pass-orders-on-ed-s-plaint-against-ex-yes-bank-chief/story-kOCzdVI2eq3wurxlmNz67K.html