CHANDIGARH, Dec 15: As part of a money laundering investigation against a pharmaceutical company based in Chandigarh and its promoters connected to a purported bank fraud, the Enforcement Directorate carried out additional searches at approximately twelve locations in the Delhi-NCR and Punjab on Friday, according to official sources. October saw the completion of the initial round of searches in this case against the business, Parabolic Drugs. Under the terms of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the central agency had previously detained Vineet Gupta (54), Pranav Gupta (56), who is also a co-founder of Ashoka University in Sonepat, and CA Surjeet Kumar Bansal (74).Following the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filing a case against them and the company in 2021 for their suspected involvement in a bank loan fraud of ₹1,626 crore, the Guptas resigned from their positions at Ashoka University in 2022. In January of last year, the ED brought a money laundering charge against them. The two company directors who were detained were “actively involved in defrauding the banks by availing loans or financial facilities based upon forged and fabricated documents,” the agency informed the court in October.By means of convoluted transactions utilising the platforms of their group companies that they controlled, it was claimed that the two “intentionally changed the colour of the loan funds from liabilities to assets and layered, diverted, and syphoned off the said funds.” According to the agency, the two “illegally inflated the value of primary security against which drawings were allowed by the bank” and used “shell companies” as their services. The agency asserted that Parabolic Drugs Ltd. “raised fake and unrelated goods invoices and illegally received entries from shell companies” while operating under their direction and control. According to the report, Bansal gave “false certificates to Parabolic Drugs Ltd. which were used for availing loans from consortium of banks” through his chartered accountancy firm, S.K. Bansal and Company.The ED told the court that the Central Bank of India and other consortium banks suffered an unjust loss of ₹1,626.7 crore due to their illicit activities and misappropriation of loan funds, as per the CBI FIR. The ED was requesting the remand of the three.
