Court directs bizman to appear before ED in Rs 5,000 crore bank fraud case

A city court today directed a Delhi businessman, accused in a Rs 5,000-crore bank loan fraud case, to appear before the Enforcement Directorate for questioning.

The direction came after the agency told the court that he was required to be confronted with a man arrested on charges of sending Rs 25 lakh cash to the official residence of a senior Congress leader here.

Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora directed businessman Gagan Dhawan, who was earlier arrested by the ED and is currently out on bail, to appear before the ED tomorrow and on August 16.

The court passed the direction after special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana, appearing for ED, said that Dhawan had refused to appear before it despite repeated summons.

Rana has also urged the court to cancel Dhawan's bail, alleging that he had violated the conditions imposed on him by the court at the time of granting him relief.

In an application moved through advocate A R Aditya, ED told the court that Dhawan was required to be confronted with one Ranjit Malik, who had allegedly sent Rs 25 lakh cash through one Rakesh Chandra to the official address of the political leader.

The period of delivery of the cash was not disclosed by the agency.

Malik was arrested earlier this month by the ED and is currently in its custody.

Dhawan was arrested on November 1 last year after the ED had alleged that he 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.

He was granted bail by a court here on January 4 this year on several conditions, including that he will appear before the agency as and when called for.

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, former director Andhra Bank Anup Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case.

It had 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 had also 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.