Court extends ED custody of man in money laundering case

A Delhi court today extended by seven days the remand of a man who is in custody of the Enforcement Directorate in a bank loan fraud case of overRs 5,000 crore over allegations that he sent Rs 25 lakh cash to the official residence of a senior Congress leader here.Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora extended the custody of Ranjit Malik alias Johny after he was produced in the court through ED's special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana on expiry of his four-day custody.According to the ED, Malik had allegedly sent through a man, Rakesh Chandra, Rs 25 lakh to '23, Mother Teresa Crescent' which is the official address of Congress leader Ahmed Patel."The seized material, telephonic chats and bank account statements contain a lot of financial transactions including cash transactions which have a bearing on Sterling Biotech group. Ranjit Malik has thus not only been non-cooperative and evasive, but also acted as a conduit for Gagan Dhawan and has been actively involved in money laundering."One Rakesh Chandra, in his statement of August 25, 2017, before ED had stated on oath that Malik was using him as a delivery boy of cash to various persons. On one occasion, he delivered cash of Rs 25 lakh at 23, Mother Teresa Crescent, New Delhi. When Malik was asked about such transactions, he gave evasive replies," the ED had told the court earlier.However, the period of delivery of cash was not disclosed by the agency.In its application moved through advocate A R Aditya, the agency told the court that Malik was required to be confronted with co-accused and Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan, who was earlier arrested by the ED and is currently out on bail.It also told the court that Dhawan was being evasive on the summons issued to him for the purpose of confronting him with the current accused.The ED sought the extension of custody by 11 more days saying that over Rs 5,000 crore have been diverted and the accused was needed for the probe in regard to the money trail.The application was opposed by advocate Madhav Khurana, who appeared for the accused, claiming that Malik was already in ED custody for four days and there was no fresh ground for extension of his custodial interrogation.The ED had recently filed a charge sheet against a director of the pharma firm in the case in which the agency accused the company of taking loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank, which had turned into non-performing assets.The agency had in February arrested a former director of Andhra Bank, Anup Prakash Garg. Dhawan was arrested last November in connection with the case.They were named as accused in the cases by the ED and CBI.The ED registered a money laundering case in this instance after taking cognisance of an earlier CBI FIR.The CBI had booked Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case.The FIR alleged that the total pending dues of the group companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016.

Court extends ED custody of man in money laundering case

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