Business tycoon Gautam Thapar arrested in Yes Bank Rs 1,900 crore money laundering case

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The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has arrested Avantha Group promoter Gautam Thapar in connection with a Yes Bank money laundering case, senior officials disclosed on Wednesday.</p>
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Thapar was arrested under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Tuesday night after the financial crimes investigative agency carried out raids on his residential and business premises in Delhi and Mumbai.</p>
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The ED has been probing an alleged transaction between his company Avantha Realty, Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor and his wife, who are already being investigated under the PMLA by the agency.</p>
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The case of money laundering was filed by the ED after taking cognisance of an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).</p>
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"The (CBI) FIR alleges that Rana Kapoor, then MD and CEO of Yes Bank Limited, obtained illegal gratification in the form of a property in a prime location in Delhi at much less than the realisable market value belonging to Avantha Realty Ltd for sanction of a loan to ARL and for extending concessions, relaxations and waivers in the already existing credit facilities provided to Avantha Group companies and for advancing new and additional loans to them by Yes Bank Ltd," the ED had said earlier.</p>
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The CBI had last year filed a case against Kapoor and his wife Bindu for allegedly taking a bribe of ₹ 307 crore which formed part of a real estate deal for a sprawling bungalow in the national capital at half the market price. The CBI has alleged that the discounted transaction for the 1.2 acre-bungalow on Amrita Shergill Marg in Delhi was a bribe to Raba Kapoor through the company Bliss Abode Pvt Ltd in return for non-realisation of over ₹ 1,900 crore in loans from Yes Bank to Gautam Thapar-promoted Avantha Realty and group companies.</p>