Bizman sent to judicial custody in bank fraud case

Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan was today sent to judicial custody till November 23 by a Delhi court in a Rs 5,000-crore money laundering case.
Special Public Prosecutor Nitesh Rana had yesterday told the court that Dhawan was not required by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for further custodial interrogation after which the accused was sent to one-day judicial custody.
Dhawan was on November 13 handed over to the probe agency by the Supreme Court after Rana had submitted that the accused was required to be confronted with certain documents received recently from banks.
The accused, arrested on November 1, was sent to judicial custody on November 10 by a lower court which had refused to grant the agency Dhawan's further custody.

The ED had alleged that Dhawan had facilitated the directors of Gujarat-based pharma firm Sterling Biotech Ltd (SBL) in the purchase of several properties and helped in misuse and diversion of the credit facilities of several bank totalling Rs 5,000 crore.
"Rs 1.5 crore was received by the accused from SBL group. Prior to that, the amount of bank loans was rotated in various group companies of SBL group," according to the agency.

The lower court had on November 14 issued non-bailable warrants against two other persons -- SBL directors Nitin and Chetan Sandesara.
The agency told the court that Chetan may have left the country.

Dhawan was arrested in an alleged bank fraud case involving SBL under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
He was on the radar of the agency for allegedly aiding bank loan frauds related to Sterling Biotech, a Vadodara-based company, and some other similar alleged illegal transactions, the ED claimed.
The firm and Dhawan were also being probed by the ED for allegedly bribing senior Income Tax department officials in an earlier criminal complaint.
The Central Bureau of Investigation had recently booked Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, former director Andhra Bank Anup Garg and other unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case.

It has alleged that the company had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which had turned into non-performing assets.
The FIR has alleged that the total pending dues of the group companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016. The ED had taken a cognisance of this FIR to file a money laundering case against them.