Court denies bail to accused in bank loan fraud case of over Rs 5K cr

A Delhi court Friday dismissed the bail application of a man arrested in a bank loan fraud case of over Rs 5,000 crore involving a Gujarat-based pharma firm for allegedly sending Rs 25 lakh cash to the official residence of a senior Congress leader here.

Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora denied relief to accused Ranjit Malik alias Johny, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate and is in judicial custody.

The court took note of the submissions made by ED's special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana that the allegations against the accused were "very serious" and if granted the relief, he may destroy the evidence which is yet to be collected in the case.

He had told the court that a charge sheet was likely to be filed soon and the accused may destroy various documents available on the Internet as well as other electronic evidence.

According to the ED, Malik had allegedly sent through a man named Rakesh Chandra Rs 25 lakh to the politician's residence in the national capital.

In its reply to the application, filed through advocate A R Aditya, ED had said that Malik may flee from justice if granted bail.

In his plea, the accused had told the court that he was not required for further investigation and no purpose will be served by keeping him in the custody.

ED had recently filed a charge sheet against the director of a pharma firm in the case, accusing the company of taking loans of over Rs 5,000 crore 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 and a Delhi-based businessman, Gagan Dhawan, last November in connection with the case. Malik was a middleman for Dhawan.

They were named as accused in the case by the ED and the CBI.

ED registered a money laundering case in this instance after taking cognisance of an FIR filed earlier by the CBI.

CBI had booked Vadodara-based 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.

According to the FIR, the total pending dues of the group of companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016.