Court extends ED custody of ex-Andhra bank official

A Delhi court today extended by seven days, the custody of a former Andhra Bank Director, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its money laundering probe in analleged Rs 5,000-crore bank fraud case.
Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma partly allowed the agency's plea seeking 12-day custody of Anup Prakash Garg, who was arrested by the ED on January 12 in connection with the case involving a Gujarat-based pharma firm.
Special Public Prosecutor Nitesh Rana, appearing for ED, sought his remand saying he was required for further interrogation.
Garg is the second person to be arrested in the case after the agency had in November last year held Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan.

Garg has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and named as an accused by the ED as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The ED had lodged the money laundering case after taking cognisance of an FIR lodged by the CBI.

The ED had said that during the probe, it came across "certain entries" in a diary seized by the Income Tax department in 2011 which showed various cash payments totalling about Rs 1.52 crore made to one "Mr Garg, Director, Andhra Bank" by the Sandesara brothers between 2008 and 2009.
"Various cash payments were made to Garg, as reflected in the said entries, on the instructions of the Sandesara brothers, by withdrawing cash from the bank accounts of several benami companies owned by them," it had alleged.

It had claimed that Garg infused several crores of his unaccounted money in various companies through several Kolkata-based bogus shell companies, with the help of cash or cheque entry operators in Kolkata, in order to launder the proceeds of crime obtained by him from the Sandesaras.
The CBI had booked the Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the case.
It had alleged that the company took loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank, which 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.