The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that Rana Kapoor, former chairman and co-founder of Yes Bank Ltd, instructed financial institution officers to not get better loans of Rs 3,642 crore from Cox and Kings Ltd, though the defaulting journey agency had raised Rs 4,387 crore from promoting its UK agency Holiday Break Education, in January 2019, in line with the statements given by two senior Yes Bank officers to the company.
These statements are part of the prosecution criticism (chargesheet) filed by ED within the Rs 7,000-crore financial institution fraud pertaining to the now bankrupt Cox and Kings. The ED has alleged that Cox and Kings offered Holiday Break Education for £460 million after defaulting on mortgage repayments to Yes Bank and “siphoned” the sale proceeds.
Cox and Kings owes Rs 5,500 crore to banks and monetary establishments and it is among the high debtors of Yes Bank. The listed journey agency was despatched to chapter court docket in October 2019, after it defaulted on funds.
The ED criticism towards Cox and Kings and its arrested promoter Ajay Ajit Peter Kerkar has alleged that the highest three prospects of Cox and Kings — A Ok Travel, Holiday Break Travel and Worldwide Travels — operated from the residence of one of many administrators of Liz Traders and Agents Pvt Ltd, an organization owned by Kerkar.
The company has alleged that Kerkar, together with the agency’s chief monetary officer Anil Khandelwal, indulged in round buying and selling by “purchasing air tickets from other group companies of Cox and Kings and selling it to another group company Ezeego One Travels and Tours Ltd, to inflate the books of accounts”. “The purchase of tickets from Cox and Kings by Ezeego was around Rs 2,000 crore and sale to Cox and Kings was around Rs 400-500 crore,” mentioned the Directorate in its criticism.
The ED mentioned its probe has discovered that “the bonding and interdependence” between Kerkar and Khandelwal was “eye catching and inseparable in all respect”. “Initially Peter Kerkar, Anil Khandelwal and Naresh Jain and other associates were working in tandem and used to divert the money from the company for their personal use. Around 2018, the group started facing financial difficulties and investigating agencies and regulatory bodies started intervening in the matter of financial irregularities. Once the investigating agencies started investigation, they started blaming each other to save themselves…,” mentioned the ED criticism.
The ED has arrested Kerkar, Khandelwal and the corporate’s inner auditor Naresh Jain in reference to the cash laundering case. It has additionally been arrested Kapoor for allegedly taking kickbacks in lieu of granting loans to a number of corporations which have now defaulted on repayments. Kapoor, who’s in judicial custody, has denied these allegations.
The ED probe additionally discovered that between 2004 and 2019, Kerkar allegedly diverted Rs 426 crore and Rs 71 crore from Cox and Kings to its group corporations V-Hotel Ltd and Tulip Star Hotel Ltd, respectively.
As per the chargesheet, Kerkar has allegedly transferred at the very least $15.34 million out of the sale proceeds of Holiday Break Education to Kuber Investment Mauritius Pvt Ltd, a Mauritius-based agency managed by him. According to the company, Khandelwal and Jain have immediately siphoned Rs 275 crore from Cox and Kings to corporations managed by them.
In April 2019, The Indian Express, in a sequence of tales, reported {that a} forensic audit discovered Cox and Kings did associated occasion transactions price Rs 21,000 crore over 4 years (2015-2019) to siphon off funds. It additionally discovered that the journey agency had falsified data, booked gross sales price Rs 9,000 crore to over 160 prospects who’re bogus or don’t exist and inflated financial institution balances.
