ED files supplementary charge sheet in Sterling Biotech case

The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday filed a supplementary charge sheet in connection with the over Rs 50 billion bank loan fraud case of Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech against a man, arrested for allegedly sending Rs 2.5 million cash to the official residence of a senior Congress leader.

Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora issued production warrant for October 3 against the accused, Ranjit Malik alias Johny, who was arrested by the agency for allegedly sending through a man named Rakesh Chandra Rs 2.5 million to the politician's residence in the national capital.

The court, which had earlier issued open-ended non-bailable warrants against pharma firm's directors, including Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara and Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, put up the charge sheet, filed by ED's special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana, for consideration on October 3.

The charge sheet was filed under the sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act. An "open-ended NBW" does not carry a time limit for execution unlike non-bailable warrants (NBW). The charge sheet, filed through advocate A R Aditya, also named Delhi based businessman Gagan Dhawan, arrested earlier in the case.

Malik was allegedly a middleman for Dhawan. While Malik is currently in judicial custody, Dhawan is out on bail. Besides Sandesra brother, the court had also issued NBW against Chetan's wife Dipti Chetan Sandesara, also a director in the firm, and her brother Hiteshkumar Narendrabhai Patel.

The open-ended NBWs were issued after Rana told the court that the four accused were likely to have left the country. In its charge sheet, filed through advocate A R Aditya, the ED had told the court that the directors of the firm, along with others, had taken loans of over Rs 5o billion from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which turned into non-performing asset (NPA) or bad loan. The agency also arrested a former director of Andhra Bank, Anup Prakash Garg, in February.

They were named as accused in the case by the ED and the CBI. The ED registered a money laundering case in this instance after taking cognisance of an FIR filed earlier by the CBI.

The CBI had booked Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech, its directors Nitin, Chetan, Dipti, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case. According to the FIR, the total pending dues of the group of companies were Rs 53.83 billion as on December 31, 2016.