Loan fraud case: ED opposes bail plea of ex-Andhra Bank

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has opposed the bail application of a former Andhra Bank director, arrested in an alleged Rs 5,000-crore bank fraud case involving a Gujarat-based pharma firm, saying it may hamper the probe.
The agency opposed the bail application moved by Anup Prakash Garg before the court of Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma who posted the matter for further hearing on February 16.
In the reply to the bail application, ED's special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana said that the allegations against Garg were serious as about Rs 300 crore loan was passed on his behest.
"If granted the bail, he may hamper the ongoing investigation and flee from justice," Rana told the court.

Garg was arrested by the probe agency on January 12 and is currently in judicial custody.
He was one of the three persons arrested in the case. The agency had in November last year held Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan.

Besides Dhawan and Garg, the ED has also arrested Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, one of the directors of the pharma firm, who is currently in the agency's custody for interrogation.
All three were arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED had lodged the money laundering case after taking cognisance of an earlier FIR registered by the CBI.
The agency 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 amounting to Rs 1.52 crore made to one "Mr Garg, Director, Andhra Bank" by the Sandesara brothers between 2008 and 2009.

It had said, "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 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 Garg, the firm Sterling Biotech, its directors Dixit, Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi 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.