Thapar case may have huge fallout: Court | Economic Times

The ongoing case against Gautam Thapar for an alleged ₹500-crore-plus bank loan fraud “might have wide ramifications”, a local court observed in its order remanding the Avantha Group promoter to 10 days custodial interrogation of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).“It appears that thorough and detailed custodial interrogation of this accused (Thapar) will be required in this case regarding the modus operandi pertaining to the commission of offence and to dig out other documentary evidence relevant to this case and to further collect the details of the bank account(s), properties owned by him and his family from the proceeds of crime,” the order said.A copy of the order, passed last Thursday, was made available on Tuesday.“The details of the money trail have also to be worked out,” it said. “The involvement of the accused along with earlier management of the Yes Bank is also to be worked out. This case might have wide ramifications involving proceeds of crime involving huge amounts of more than ₹500 crore.”ED had arrested Thapar on August 3 on charges of playing a “key role” in laundering more than ₹500 crore in a bank loan fraud case.“Illegal favours are found to have been extended by Yes Bank to Avantha Group. Any quid pro quo for extending such illegal benefit is yet to be ascertained,” ED alleged in its remand paper as reported by ET last week.The local court allowed an application moved by Thapar’s counsels Vijay Aggarwal and Sandeep Kapur, and directed the ED to furnish details of “pendency” of other cases registered by the agency against Thapar, if any, to his counsel(s) within a week through e-mode.In response to another application moved by Thapar’s counsels, the agency assured the court that Thapar’s interrogation will be conducted under audio visual CCTV surveillance.Counsel for the agency had alleged that “sham agreements” were made by Thapar’s companies to obtain a loan of ₹500 crore from Yes Bank. Countering the charge, Aggarwal had argued that Thapar is the “victim” in the instant case and that the said sham agreements were executed by the official of Yes Bank to secure “valuable shares” of Thapar’s company.In its remand paper, ED had alleged that its probe revealed that ₹500 crore (approximately) proceeds of crime were laundered through a number of companies “controlled and beneficially owned directly or indirectly” by Thapar, including Oyster Buildwell (OBPL), Jhabua Power (JPL), Jhabua Power Investment (JPIL), Avantha Power & Infrastructure (APIL), and Avantha Realty.