Ex-Andhra Bank official sent to ED custody

A court here on Monday sent a former Director of Andhra Bank to seven-day custody with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a Rs 5,000 crore bank fraud case involving Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company Sterling Biotech.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma allowed ED to quiz Anup Prakash Garg till January 22.

Garg was arrested under charges of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Friday.

He was presented before the court on Monday after expiry of his two-day custody.

Both the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had named Garg in criminal cases as an accused. The ED initiated a money laundering probe in the case taking cognizance of the CBI FIR.

The ED said that during the probe it found that "certain entries" in a diary seized by the Income Tax Department in 2011 showed various cash payments amounting to Rs 1.52 crore made to one "Garg, Director, Andhra Bank" between 2008-2009 by the Sandesara brothers.

The financial probe agency alleged Garg of infusing several crores of rupees of his unaccounted cash in various companies through many Kolkata-based bogus shell companies with the help of cash or cheque entry operators in Kolkata to launder the proceeds of crime obtained by him from the Sandesaras.

The CBI had booked Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, Chartered Accountant Hemant Hathi, Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case.

Sterling Biotech had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium of banks led by Andhra Bank which had turned into non-performing assets. Total pending dues of the group companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016, said the CBI FIR.

--IANS

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