Yes, Rana was very protective of his family. Back in 2012, a video of a young lady in a lip-lock with a Bollywood heart-throb got leaked on the Internet.1 Afterwards, it was alleged that it was one of Rana’s daughters, who was a minor back then. Soon, the video disappeared from the Internet. Many, who have followed Rana closely, say that it was he who got that video removed from the website.
Other than his family, Rana Kapoor had many allies but no friends. People who covered the ED, told me, during the course of the interviews, that it was only Rana Kapoor’s wife, Bindu Kapoor, and Aditya Khanna, Radha Kapoor Khanna’s husband, who regularly visited him in jail. In fact, one of his few friends, who was acting as a shield for him during the trial, had some harsh words to say about him. ‘He [Rana] has become way too arrogant,’ he said.
Probably, Rana Kapoor, because of this arrogance, earned more foes. According to a senior business journalist, ‘Every business has some wrongdoing. But the thing is how soon can you correct it and how far you go. Probably he (Rana Kapoor) went too far.’ Over the years, Rana Kapoor had narrowed his circle down due to internal fears. He became more and more of a family man. ‘From what was coming out on a daily basis, it was clear that Rana Kapoor was a kind of insecure man,’ a journalist who tracked the YES Bank fallout closely said. In a contrarian point of view, it was a ‘big brother club’, where the partners dump you once you get caught.
But law enforcement agencies have their own way of making people speak. In the PMC Bank scam, when Sarang Wadhawan, aka Sunny Dewan, was arrested, he acted arrogant in front of the ED and was allegedly made to stand all night to break his silence. ‘In Rana Kapoor’s case, they could even reduce access to home-cooked food. It would have disturbed him, as he wasn’t keeping well,’ a senior journalist told me. In fact, in the bail plea, his advocate told the court that he suffers from a chronic immunodeficiency syndrome which causes recurrent lung, sinus and skin infections. ‘This combined with his history of longstanding bronchial asthma since childhood still requiring inhalers put him at high risk of a severe lung infection which can lead to death,’ it stated and added that he needed to be kept at a distance from other prisoners.
After hearing all this, I wanted to understand Rana Kapoor’s side of the story. I called up his eldest daughter. She asked me to send her questions over WhatsApp.
Here is my message to Radha Kapoor, when I tried asking her about the fraud at YES Bank, which I sent to her on 19 June 2020:
‘Hi Ms Radha,
Appreciate your response on the phone. There are some questions that I would want to ask you for the book:
Can you tell me about how did you, as a family member, see things shaping out when YES Bank started operations in 2003?
When there was a tussle going on between Ms Madhu Kapur and Mr Rana Kapoor for the control of YES Bank, who were the extended family members supporting?
The family of late Ashok Kapur has long been alleging that there was a power grab by Mr Rana Kapoor. How did you see to those allegations?
When the bank was seeing huge credit growth during 2012 – 18, Mr Kapoor used to hold lavish parties for his borrowers at his house in Samudra Mahal, Worli. How did you see to those parties?
How did you feel, personally, when pledge on shares of Morgan Credit in YES Bank was invoked by RNAM last year?
ED Chargesheet, including many things, has chargesheeted, that the companies controlled by Mr Kapoor family, which includes you as well, were talking kickback for the loans that did not deserve to be sanctioned? Were you aware that this was happening? How do you see to it?’
On 20 June 2020, Rana Kapoor’s lawyer Subhash Jadhav, who was actor Sanjay Dutt’s lawyer in the infamous arms case, sent me this reply on their part:
We write to you on behalf of our client Ms Radha Khanna. We have noted the questionnaire sent by you. In response to the same we would like to state that the matter is sub judice and it is at very preliminary stage. Complaint filed by ED is not a statement on the expression of merits and neither concludes or affirms any fact. Our clients maintain that Mr Rana Kapoor and the family members are innocent and cannot be and should not be subjected to trial by media. Your attempt to make any publication by drawing any inference without adjudication on merits by the competent courts will amount to trial by media and invasion of the rights of privacy of our clients. Our clients are entitled for free and fair trial as envisaged by the constitution and therefore they are not going to respond to any of your queries. Our clients reserve its rights to take appropriate steps to protect its valuable constitutional rights including rights to bring actions under the contempt laws if you will resort to unnecessary sensationalism by publishing any stories which will malign or defame our clients, or in any way interfere with the right to fair trial of our client. You are thus hereby warned not to indulge into any such publication when the trial is at a preliminary stage. Needless to state any such publication shall be at your risk and consequences. We reserve our right to take appropriate proceedings against you.
Advocate Subhash Jadhav
When I asked Jadhav to arrange a meeting with Rana Kapoor, he denied access. I had explained to him that I wanted to talk only about the charges, and had mentioned this in my message too, and that at no point was I trying to do a media trial. But as they say, old habits die hard. Rana Kapoor used
