Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor has claimed that he was forced to buy MF Hussain’s painting from Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Also, the amount received from the picture was used by the Gandhi family to get Sonia Gandhi treated in New York. This has been said in the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the special court in Mumbai in connection with the money laundering case.
According to the charge sheet, Kapoor told the ED that the then Petroleum Minister Murli Deora had said that if he refused to buy the painting of MF Hussain, not only would it hamper his ties with the Gandhi family, but also with him. There will be difficulty in getting the ‘Padma’ award. This purported statement of Rana Kapoor is part of the second supplementary charge sheet (three in total) filed by the ED in the money laundering case in the special court. The chargesheet has been filed against Yes Bank co-founder, his family, Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHEL) promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan and others.
‘The money from the sale of the painting was used for the treatment of Sonia Gandhi’
According to the charge sheet, Kapoor has claimed that he paid an amount of Rs 2 crore in check for the painting. He claimed that Milind Deora secretly informed him that the proceeds from the sale of this painting would be used by the Gandhi family for the treatment of Sonia Gandhi in New York. Kapoor also told the ED that Ahmed Patel, a close aide of Sonia Gandhi, had told him that he had done a good job by helping the Gandhi family in treating Sonia Gandhi at this right time and that her name was appropriate for conferring ‘Padma Bhushan’. will be properly considered.
According to the charge sheet, Murli Deora had also tried to persuade Rana Kapoor that his refusal to buy the painting would not give him a chance to have a relationship with the Gandhi family and would also prevent him from conferring the Padma award. In a statement to the ED, Kapoor claimed that the late Deora told during the dinner that his refusal to purchase the painting could have adverse effects on him and Yes Bank.
‘Called me several times from different mobile numbers’
Kapoor was arrested in March 2020 and is currently in judicial custody. Regarding the painting allegedly bought by Kapoor from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the charge sheet said, “First of all, I would like to state that it was a force majeure sale for which I was never prepared.” Milind Deora visited his (Rana Kapoor) home and office several times to persuade him to buy MF Hussain’s painting from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The charge sheet said that Kapoor told the ED, “He called me several times from different mobile numbers. Rather, he was very committed to get this deal done. I also met his phone/messages and personal meetings for several days.” Tried to avoid it by ignoring the proposal.
Kapoor claimed that despite several attempts to shelve the deal, they unexpectedly wanted the deal to be finalized expeditiously. He told that in 2010, Murli Deora forced him to meet him for a Marwari dinner at the Lodhi Estate bungalow in New Delhi. According to the charge sheet, Deora was the petroleum minister at that time and the bungalow was allotted to him on that basis.