It is known now that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) tightened its grip on Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, and that he is now in the custody of the CBI. The ED alleges that he took a bribe of about Rs 600 crore in lieu of giving loans to companies. But why did such a shrewd operator, who could have turned another fugitive like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi or Mehul Choksi, come back to India from the United Kingdom after making more than Rs 2,000 crore for himself and his family through money laundering?

Well, there was no news of the government tracking Kapoor or that he would be arrested before the ED caught up with him. He did not know what looked like a proposition of reviving his control of Yes Bank and a good business deal was actually a trap the Narendra Modi government, in collaboration with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), had laid for him.

At present, a Mumbai court has sent Kapoor on remand for three days. In January last year, he had to leave the post of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on the orders of the Reserve Bank (RBI). After this, he went to London. However, when he knew he had fostered the innumerable irregularities in the bank, how did he dare come back to India? His return to India was not ‘normal’. The Modi government and RBI had prepared a complete plan for this.

After the removal of Rana Kapoor from the helm of Yes Bank, the government prepared a plan to save the sinking bank. It wanted the public to trust the bank. So the government and RBI started looking for new investors.

In the last eight months, RBI had held talks with three different investors, but each time the deal appeared to be nearing closure, the investors excused themselves. It turned out that Rana Kapoor himself was instigating investors.

Kapoor to return to the bank again. The government was eyeing every move he made in London.

How Rana Kapoor was lured to India

The Modi government prepared a plan to bring Kapoor back to India. The government told him it is not getting any new investors for the bank and that perhaps if he were to come back to India and take command of the bank once again, his charm and ‘goodwill’ would woo the investors. He bought the idea — to his peril!

Kapoor got the notion that the government and RBI had prepared a plan to revive Yes Bank, which was correct. But that they would coronate him as the boss of the bank again is where he went all wrong.

Kapoor started preparing to flee the country once again, but the guard of the posh building in Mumbai where the alleged fraud lived tipped off the investigating agencies.

As soon as Kapoor landed in India, all the agencies swooped on him. By then, the government had plugged all his possible escape routes.

Planned arrest

The bank board meeting was to be held on 14 March. Quarterly results of the bank were to come on the same day. Bad results would have had a horrid impact on the country’s economy. A debate was going on in the government on the right time to arrest Rana Kapoor.

His arrest would have created an atmosphere of unrest among the bank’s customers. Therefore, the government first announced that Yes Bank would be revived and then got Kapoor arrested.