The Delhi High Court has permitted Yes Bank promoter Rana Kapoor to appear through a virtual hearing before the trial court in a money laundering case related to allegedly wrongful loss of Rs 466.51 crore registered by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).
The trial court on February 28, 2022 ordered Rana Kapoor to appear physically on March 29, 2022. Rana Kapoor through his advocate Vijay Aggarwal challenged the said order in Delhi High Court.
The bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna on March 23, while allowing Rana Kapoor to appear before the court virtually, said the impugned order dated February 28 passed by the trial court so far relates to issuing the production warrants against the petitioner, in the circumstances explained, is hereby set aside. The petitioner is allowed to appear before the trial court on next date fixed by it through video conferencing.
Former Managing director and CEO of Yes Bank Limited, Rana Kapoor recently had moved a petition in Delhi High Court seeking direction to permit him to appear through virtual hearing in trial court.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, who appeared for the petitioner Rana Kapoor, submitted before the court that his client has been regularly appearing before the Special Court in Delhi through virtual hearing mode and facing multiple cases in Mumbai and is arrested and lodged in Taloja Jail Mumbai and thus physical production in Delhi on every date before the Special Judge, Delhi would not be feasible and would cause severe hardships to his client.
The lawyer for Rana Kapoor also argued that his client is required more in Mumbai as the cases there are at an advance stage as compared to the case in Delhi. Advocate Aggarwal further argued that for his client to be produced physically from Mumbai in Delhi, would require significant amount of state machinery and therefore significant amount of resources would exhausted which in itself would not serve any purpose.
In the present case, the trial court in October last year, took cognizance of Enforcement Directorate (ED) Chargesheet (Prosecution Complaint) filed against Avantha group promoter Gautam Thapar involving Yes Bank's Rana Kapoor and several employees in connection with money laundering case.
According to the ED, an ECIR was registered against Gautam Thapar, Avantha Realty Ltd., Oyster Buildwell Pvt. Ltd. and others, alleging criminal breach of trust, cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery for diversion/ misappropriation of public money during the period 2017 to 2019.
Earlier, the ED told the Delhi Court that "Investigation revealed that proceeds of crime, were laundered through Oyster Buildwell Pvt Ltd (OBPL), Jhabua Power Limited (JPL), Jhabua Power Investment Ltd. (JPIL), Avantha Power and Infrastructure Ltd (APIL), Avantha Realty Ltd. (ARL) etc. which are being controlled and beneficially owned directly or indirectly by Gautam Thapar.
( With inputs from ANI )
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