Court sends man to one day ED custody in money laundering case

A Delhi court today remanded a man in one-day custody of Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a bank loan fraud case of over Rs 5,000 crore on its allegations that he had sent Rs 25 lakh cash to the official residence of a senior Congress leader here.

The ED produced Ranjit Malik alias Johny before duty magistrate Bhavna Kalia this evening who granted his custody to the agency for a day and directed it to produce him before the court concerned tomorrow.

In its plea moved through special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana, the agency sought 15 days custody of the man saying he was required to be questioned in connection with the case and the transactions.

According to the ED, Malik had sent through a man named 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 bearing on Sterling Biotech group. Ranjit Malik has thus not only being 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 occasions, 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 said.

However, the period when he delivered the cash was not disclosed by the agency.

The ED had recently filed a charge sheet against a director of the pharma firm in the case in which the agency has 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, and Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan last November in connection with the case.

They were named as accused in the cases by the ED and the 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, Dixit, 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.