The case belongs to the money laundering investigation of the Directorate of Enforcement. (Archive)
New Delhi / Mumbai:
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) arrested Cox & Kings promoter Peter Kerkar today in a money laundering case linked to the alleged loan default at Yes Bank, officials said.
Peter Kerkar, aka Ajay Ajit Peter, was arrested in Mumbai under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and will be brought before a court on Friday.
The case relates to ED’s money laundering investigation in which the central investigating agency had said that Yes Bank had an outstanding total of Rs 3,642 crore against Cox & Kings Group of Companies (CKG).
Peter Kerkar’s role is under investigation regarding alleged loan defaults with various banks, including Yes Bank, official sources said.
The agency had raided several former executives of the beleaguered travel and travel services firm along with Peter Kerkar in June as part of multiple searches conducted by her in Mumbai.
He also arrested his former CFO Anil Khandelwal and internal auditor Naresh Jain in October in this case.
Currently, the company is in the process of resolution of commercial bankruptcy.
The ED had alleged that AnilKhandelwal and Naresh Jain had “purchased various real estate properties from the diverted funds of Cox & Kings Group (CKG)”.
“CKG forged its consolidated financial statements by manipulating the balance sheets of foreign subsidiaries. Furthermore, some board resolutions presented to banks to sanction the loans were also found to be falsified,” the ED stated.
Probe revealed that Yes bank’s credit sanction was pushed by then-CMD Rana Kapoor and was granted “circumventing” the rules, it said.
“The Department of Education gathered the evidence regarding Rana Kapoor’s clear instruction to the officials of the bank in question to continue the loan and make no effort to recover it,” he alleged.
“During the 2015-2019 fiscal year, sales of Rs 3,908 crore were made to 15 non-existent / fictitious customers,” the ED had said after arresting the two.
It said that Cox & King Limited “diverted 1.1 billion rupees to another company in difficulty without the approval of the board that has no business relationship with the company.”
Yes Bank co-promoter Rana Kapoor and DHFL promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan were arrested in this case by the Department of Education earlier this year.
He had booked Kapoor, his family members and others under the PMLA after studying a CBI FIR alleging that Yes Bank made doubtful loans of several crore to various entities in contravention of the law and in lieu of alleged bribes given to the Kapoor family.
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