Why Centre not helping ‘YES Bank’ recover loans from MP Subhash Chandra: Congress

“Subhash Chandra filed FIR saying he was forcibly given loan by YES Bank”

New Delhi, Dec. 24 (Delhi Crown): Congress spokesman Pawan Khera on Friday questioned why the Centre Government was not helping State Bank of India’s (SBI) associated YES Bank in recovering money from BJP Rajya MP Subhash Chandra’s “Essel Group”.

“The brazen nexus between the Modi government and few of his corporate friends is now known not just to the country, but, to the entire world. Laws are ignored, misused, not used, twisted, turned, made flexible to help the vested interests of the favourite businessmen, friends of Narendra Modi,” said Khera while addressing media persons at AICC headquarter in New Delhi.

He further alleged that Subhash Chandra is “very close to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS)”.

Yes Bank Ltd, which was a private bank, went into huge losses in 2020. The SBI group and other financial institutions infused Rs. 11,760 crores to keep the bank afloat and to revive it. Today, Yes Bank is classified as an associate bank of the State Bank of India and the Board of Directors of Yes Bank today include SBI, RBI and other financial institutions. Technically now it is an associate bank of the SBI, said Khera.

“So, the money being infused into Yes Bank, is the money, which belongs to all of us. It is taxpayers’ money, it is the depositors’ money, may not be taxpayers’,” alleged the Congress spokesman.

He further stated that at the time of placing the Yes Bank under moratorium, it was mentioned that one of the main reasons for the problem faced by the bank was the loans given to the Essel Group of Subhash Chandra Goel, amounting to Rs. 6,789 crore.

“So, the new Board of Yes Bank ordered a forensic auditing into 12 out of the 22 Essel group borrowing entities. 8 out of these 12 were declared as fraud accounts, totaling Rs 3,197 crores, fraud accounts. Many other banks also have declared loans to the Essel group as a fraud account,” Khera told media persons.

When it failed to recover the dues from the Essel group, Yes Bank started invoking the pledged shares in June 2020 and completed it in August, 2021. “Today, Yes Bank owns 25.63 per cent of the shares of Dish TV,” Khera further stated.

On Sept. 4 this year, Yes Bank wrote to the Board of Dish TV asking them to convene an Extraordinary General Body Meeting of shareholders to consider voting out most of the current Board of Directors and replacing them with a highly reputed board dominated by independent professional directors. “That’s a prerogative of somebody, who owns more than 10 per cent shares in a company. In this case, Yes Bank owns 25.63 per cent shares of Dish TV,” said Khera.

He further alleged – “The board of Dish TV refused to hold this meeting and Yes Bank had to approach the National Company Law Tribunal for relief.”

According to him, in the meantime an AGM was called by Dish TV to meet the statutory requirement to avoid key resolutions being voted out by shareholders including Yes Bank. “This BJP-supported MP and the funder of RSS Subhash Chandra Goel gets the Crime Branch of Gautam Buddha Nagar to register an FIR. FIR No- 0821 stating that the Yes Bank pressurized it, forced it to take loans.”

“Finally, the Hon’ble Supreme Court slammed this FIR. The experts have termed this as a dangerous misuse of criminal law procedures to achieve civil law remedies. Meanwhile, the Essel Group continues to milk the cash flows from Dish TV,” the Congress spokesman further alleged.

He told media persons that Yes Bank has also written to SEBI, the Minister of Finance, Minister of Corporate Affairs drawing the attention to this gross illegality, “but no one has bothered to respond”.

In the interest of taxpayers’ money infused through SBI into the Yes Bank, it becomes crucial for SEBI to intervene and invoke its powers and help recover the bank’s dues, demanded Khera while addressing media persons.