Money laundering: Delhi court grants bail to businessman

A special court today granted bail to Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan, arrested in a Rs 5,000-crore money laundering case.

Additional Sessions judge Sidharth Sharma granted the relief to Dhawan on a personal bond of Rs two lakh and a surety of same amount.

Dhawan, arrested on November 1, 2017, was sent to judicial custody on November 15 by the court after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had said he was not needed for further custodial interrogation.

The ED alleged that Dhawan had facilitated the directors of Gujarat-based pharma firm Sterling Biotech Ltd. (SBL) in the purchase of several properties and helped in misuse and diversion of credit facilities of several bank totalling Rs 5,000 crore.
 

"Rs 1.5 crore was received by the accused from SBL group. Prior to that, the amount of bank loans was rotated in various group companies of SBL group," the agency said.

The lower court had on November 14 issued non-bailable warrants against two other persons SBL directors Nitin and Chetan Sandesara. The agency told the court that Chetan might have left the country.

In his application, the accused has sought the relief, saying he was not required for further investigation and no purpose would be served by keeping him in custody.

Dhawan was arrested in an alleged bank fraud case involving SBL under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The firm and Dhawan were also being probed by the ED for allegedly bribing senior income tax department officials in an earlier criminal complaint.

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

It had alleged that the company had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which had 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. The ED had taken a cognisance of this FIR to file a money laundering case against them.