NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday issued a notice to Rajasthan-based businessman Raman Kant Sharma in connection with its ongoing probe into the Yes Bank money laundering case.
Sharma is already under the scanner of the central probe agency on charges of the alleged violation of forex laws related to the remittance of over Rs 96 crore from Mauritius and the agency has similarly summoned him under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) for questioning.
The central probe agency is also probing his alleged business links with Vaibhav Gehlot, the son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, in the FEMA case. Sharma is alleged to have been a business partner of Vaibhav Gehlot in a car rental company in the past.
In the Yes Bank money laundering case, officials said the businessman has been asked to depose before the investigating officer of the case in Mumbai on July 27. It is alleged that Yes Bank had given a Rs 168-crore loan to Triton Hotels and Resorts in which Sharma is a shareholder and a promoter.
The ED wants to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the Yes Bank case to ascertain how the hotel group was extended the bank loan. The ED arrested Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor in this case in March along with the Wadhawan brothers, Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, of DHFL.
The ED accused Kapoor, his family members and others of laundering proceeds of crime worth Rs 4,300 crore by receiving alleged kickbacks in lieu of extending big loans through their bank that later turned into non-performing assets (NPA).
