The Bombay High Court has set aside an appellate tribunal’s April order for continuing the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s provisional attachment of assets worth ₹ 25 crore belonging to Pune businessman Avinash Bhosale and others, as part of its money-laundering probe related to the allegedly suspicious transactions in 2018 between Yes Bank and Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL).
Bhosale was named as an accused in the ED’s third supplementary charge sheet in the Yes Bank–DHFL case initiated in 2020. In its October 2022 charge sheet, ED alleged that proceeds of crime worth ₹ 3,983 crore originated from YES Bank, wherein the monies were sanctioned and disbursed to DHFL during April-June 2018 against investments including DHFL’s debentures and grant of loans. The ED alleged that proceeds of crime worth ₹ 164 .64 crore were received by Bhosale and/or his entities (Nibhodh Realty) and through transactions related to consultancy and ABIL Dairy, which received ₹ 25 crore. The court cited ED’s contention that in July 2018, DHFL allegedly lent ₹ 600 crore to DOIT Urban Ventures, allegedly the family entity of Yes Bank’s founder Rana Kapoor, by way of a kickback.
The court said that they were official banking transactions and cannot be construed as proceeds of crime. The court cited ED’s allegations related to Yes Bank’s transactions involving investment and loans to DHFL. It added that the receipt of these monies by DHFL, whether as an investment or as a loan from YES Bank, cannot be faulted in law. It added that this contention is wholly unfounded.
