Zee Business Exclusive: Senior Yes Bank official sent on leave after ED names him in chargesheet

A big development regarding Yes Bank Limited has unearthed. The deeds of its officials now proving costly for them. India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) had undertaken a big action on the officials of the bank. Zee Business’ Tarun Sharma brings this exclusive report. 

The Chief Risk Officer of Yes Bank Ashish Agarwal has been sent on leave. The new management has sent Agarwal on leave after waiting for seven months. When the ED filed its chargesheet against Gautam Thapar, it found that Agarwal knew that the loan restructuring was not done with propriety and that he knew that the bank could incur losses, going forward. 

See Zee Business Live TV Streaming Below:

The quid-pro-quo intentions of Rana Kapoor is reflected here.    

However, the important question remains that when will there be an action against remaining members of the core team?  

Though the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) saved Yes Bank by asking other banks to invest in it. When the State Bank of India (SBI) decided to invest in Yes Bank, it said that it wanted to revamp the bank but it has kept people of the earlier core management with it.  

One Official Sent on leave, when will others be? 

Even the review committee of the new management in February found that there were at least 31 accounts accounting for Rs 31,855 cr which were approved by Ashish Agarwal. The new management did not send him on leave till the time ED filed its chargesheet. He was first removed from the Chief Risk Officer and made Wholesale Banking head and later sent on a leave. 

Action against Agarwal came only after ED’s move, Sharma said adding that his sources have indicated that CBI is also likely to take action against erring officials.  

Will Sending one person on leave change anything?  

Sharma said that it does not appear to have a material impact as there are several issues where the old management is involved and it was close to Rana Kapoor.  

Any agency be it the ED, CBI or even the Ministry of Corporate Affairs call these people during their investigation and the officials then pin the blame entirely on Rana Kapoor. 

When the ED took their statements, the core team officials tried to put the entire blame on Rana Kapoor. In case of Ashish Agarwal, the ED said that Agarwal should have raised concerns on loans being the Chief Risk Officer. The ED did not buy Agarwal’s arguments and has put his name in the chargesheet as well.  

However, the attitude of the new management also requires a lot of further action. 

Though Yes Bank is trying hard to regain the confidence of depositors and market by showing that everything is alright, it is still not taking action against the people responsible for bank’s bad loans.  

Other Officials who broke rules and are still in Yes Bank:

1) Sanjay Nambiar, Group Legal Counsel, Yes Bank

2) Niranjan Banodkar, CFO

3) Shivanand Shettigar 

Watch Zee Business Tweet Video Below:

#YesBank के एक बड़े अधिकारी को छुट्टी पर भेजा गया, बड़ा सवाल बैंक को डुबाने वाले बाकी के अधिकारियों पर एक्शन कब?

ED की चार्जशीट में बैंक के किस बड़े अधिकारी का नाम, बता रहे हैं तरुण शर्मा। @talktotarun | #EnforcementDirectorate pic.twitter.com/WoGClJkrPf

— Zee Business (@ZeeBusiness) November 29, 2021

The question now arises that who is giving the legal fees to them? If Yes Bank is paying for the legal fees of the accused, then it is the money of the depositors which is being spent on the legal fees of the accused.