Enforcement Directorate raids multiple locations in Gujarat pharma PMLA case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate today conducted raids in seven places in the national capital region (NCR) in connection with a Rs 5,000-crore money laundering probe against directors and associates of Gujarat-based pharma firm Sterling Biotech, official sources said.

The raiding teams seized documents and computer hardware such as hard drives and CDs from the associates of the owners of the firm, they said.

The sources identified those covered under the searches as Sanjiv Mahajan, Arvind Gupta, Ghanshyam Panda and Lakshmi Chand Sharma.

Seven residential and business premises in areas such as Mayur Vihar, Dwarka and Ghaziabad, apart from a location in central Delhi, were raided, they said.

The ED is also probing their alleged links with some high ranking politicians.

The agency had registered a case against the firm and the directors, members of the Sandesara family, under sections of the Prevention of the Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The case is based on a CBI FIR against the same people.

The CBI had booked Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi as well as chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, former Andhra Bank director Anup Garg and other unidentified persons in connection with an alleged bank fraud case.

The CBI alleged that the company took loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which have turned into non-performing assets.

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

The ED took cognisance of this FIR to file a money laundering case against them.

The central probe agency also arrested Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan in its case on October 31.