The move by police came on a complaint made by Essel Group, which had accused the bank’s former chief executive, Rana Kapoor, of fraud. Yes Bank had extended a loan facility of ₹5,270 crores to Essel Group against the pledge of Dish TV shares in 2016. Following a default on the loan, Yes Bank had invoked the shares.
Yes Bank initially approached the Allahabad High Court against the freeze order of the Uttar Pradesh Police, but the High Court had rejected the said plea, leading to the present appeal before the top court.
In the last hearing of the matter, in November 2021, the top court had pulled up the Uttar Pradesh Police for issuing the notice to Yes Bank.
The bench had taken strong objection to what it considered as using police and criminal process to achieve the results of civil proceedings, observing that short circuiting judicial process using police officers is a dangerous trend which will lead to lawlessness.
The Court had said that such actions, which prevent the exercise of voting rights in a company, is something that even the company law tribunal has not done. As such, the to Court had also stayed the criminal proceedings initiated by the police against Yes Bank officials.
Source: Barandbench
