ED conducts searches in Delhi-NCR, Punjab against Chandigarh-based pharma company

Chandigarh/New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted fresh searches at about a dozen locations in the Delhi-NCR and Punjab as part of a money laundering investigation against a Chandigarh-based pharmaceutical company and its promoters linked to an alleged bank fraud, official sources said.

The first round of probe in this case against the company— Parabolic Drugs— was carried out in October.

The central agency had earlier arrested Parabolic Drugs promoters Vineet Gupta (54) and Pranav Gupta (56), who are also the co-founders of the Sonepat-based Ashoka University, and CA Surjeet Kumar Bansal (74) under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The Guptas stepped down from their posts at Ashoka University in 2022 after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against them and the company in 2021, for their alleged involvement in a bank loan fraud worth Rs 1,626 crore.

The ED filed a money laundering case against them in January last year.

The agency told the court in October that the two arrested directors of the company were "actively involved in defrauding the banks by availing loans or financial facilities based upon forged and fabricated documents".

The ED alleged that the two "intentionally changed colour of the loan funds from liabilities to assets and layered, diverted and siphoned off the said funds by way of circuitous transactions using platform of their group companies that were under their control".

The agency said the two availed services of 'shell companies' and "illegally inflated the value of primary security against which drawings were allowed by the bank".

The agency further claimed to have found that, "Under their command and control, Parabolic Drugs Ltd raised fake and unrelated goods invoices and illegally received entries from shell companies."

It said Bansal, through his chartered accountancy firm S K Bansal and Company, issued "false certificates to Parabolic Drugs Ltd. which were used for availing loans from consortium of banks".

Their illegal activities and abuse of loan funds caused a wrongful loss of Rs 1,626.7 crore to the Central Bank of India and other consortium banks, as per the CBI FIR, the ED told the court while seeking the remand of the three.