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A Delhi Court on Thursday allowed the bail applications moved on behalf of employees of the Avantha Group Companies, who have been arraigned as co-accused in an alleged case of wrongful loss to YES Bank, to the tune of rupees Rs 466.51 crore, registered by the Enforcement Directorate(ED).
However, in the same case, the court dismissed the bail application moved on behalf of the co-accused Rana Kapoor, Former MD & CEO of YES Bank. The trial court had earlier dismissed the bail petition of Businessman Gautam Thapar, Promoter of Avantha Group. Thapar bail plea is presently examining by the Delhi High Court. Thapar was arrested by the ED in August month last year and is currently undergoing judicial custody. Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal on Thursday disposed of the bail applications after hearing arguments in detail of several aspects including scope of section 45 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and role of all co-accused. The employees of the Avantha Group were represented by Senior Advocates N Hariharan and Pramod Kumar Dubey as well as Advocate Sandeep Kapur of Kanjawala Co. While the ED was represented by Amit Mahajan, Centre Government standing Counsel and NK Matta, Special Public prosecutor. The trial court in October last year took cognizance of the ED charge sheet (Prosecution Complaint) filed against Avantha group promoter Gautam Thapar involving Yes Bank's Rana Kapoor and several employees in connection with a Rs 500-crore money laundering case. Court had said, "hereby take cognizance of offence(s) u/S. 3 read with Section 70, which is punishable u/S 4 of PMLA 2002, as there are sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused persons arraigned in the present complaint." 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, ED told the Delhi Court that "Investigation revealed that approximately Rs 500.11 crores 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." (ANI)
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