ED arrests Delhi businessman in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday arrested businessman Gagan Dhawan in connection with an over Rs 5,000 crore bank fraud case, officials said. He was remanded to seven-day ED custody by a court here.

An ED official told IANS that Dhawan was arrested from his south Delhi residence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in a case involving fraud of over Rs 5,000 crore by Sandesara Group.

He was presented before Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Pandey, who allowed ED to quiz Dhawan for seven days.

The court observed that a huge amount of public money was allegedly siphoned off and the accused was involved in diverting the amount to purchase properties and other shell companies.

According to ED officials, Dhawan allegedly aided bank loan frauds related to Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech company.

The ED told the court that one company director had left the country while one was evading summons.

The ED had registered a case of money laundering following a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Sterling Biotech, its Directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, and Vilas Joshi and several others in connection with the bank fraud case.

According to ED officials, Dhawan is also being probed for allegedly bribing four senior Income Tax department officials as part of an earlier criminal complaint.

On August 25, the ED officials had raided Dhawan's office and premises and that of a former Congress MLA Sumesh Shokeen under provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

It is alleged that Dhawan laundered the money of Sandesh Arya through his companies based in Ethiopia and some other countries. In 2011, Income Tax officials had raided Arya's residences.

--IANS

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