New Delhi, August 4
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Gautam Thapar, promoter of the Avanta group, in a money laundering case. Officials gave this information on Wednesday.
They said Thapar was arrested on Tuesday night under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after the agency conducted raids against him and his related businesses in Delhi and Mumbai.
He said he is expected to be produced in the court on Wednesday where the ED will seek his custody.
The ED is probing alleged transactions between his company Avantha Realty, Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor and his wife, whose agency is already probing under the PMLA.
The ED had registered a money laundering case taking cognizance of an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“The (CBI) FIR alleges that Rana Kapoor, the then MD and CEO of Yes Bank Ltd, obtained illegal gratification in the form of property at a prime location in Delhi at a price much below the actual market value belonging to Avantha Reality Ltd. of a loan to ARL and for grant of concessions, exemptions and exemptions in the already existing credit facilities to Avantha Group companies and fresh and additional loans to them by Yes Bank Ltd,” the ED had said earlier.
The CBI last year registered a case against Kapoor and his wife Bindu for buying a market value half bungalow from a realty firm in a Delhi area and taking bribe in return through facilitating bank loans to the tune of about Rs 1,900 crore. did.
The CBI suspected that the concessional transaction for a 1.2-acre bungalow on Amrita Shergill Marg in Delhi was due to non-recovery of over Rs 1,900 crore in loans to Gautam Thapar from Yes Bank through the company Bliss Abode Pvt Ltd for Kapoor. In return there was a satisfaction. -Promoted Avanta Realty and group companies. PTI