ED arrests two promoters, CA of pharma co

October 31, 2023
News
1 mins read

Source: TimesofIndia

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Vineet and Pranav Gupta, the two promoters of Chandigarh-based pharmaceutical company Parabolic Drugs, and their chartered accountant, S K Bansal, in an alleged Rs 1,600 crore bank fraud and money laundering case. The three accused have been remanded in five days’ ED custody by a special PMLA court in Chandigarh.

The Guptas are also among the founders of Ashoka University, the books of which are being examined as part of the investigation against the promoters of Parabolic Drugs.

The private university has denied any link to the Guptas’ pharma company. Guptas were evasive in 3 rounds of interrogation, says ED, justifies arrest. The university had in a statement on Friday clarified that the Guptas were among the 200 donors of Ashoka University when it was founded and their donations were treated as purely philanthropic acts.

Searches on the premises of Guptas and the university began on Friday and are still continuing, with the agency trying to collect more evidence of money laundering. The searches were carried out in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and a few places in Haryana.

According to the remand note submitted by the agency before the special PMLA court in Chandigarh on Saturday, the ED has justified the arrest of Guptas by claiming they were evasive despite having been interrogated thrice with regard to the transactions under the scanner. The agency pointed out that it had recorded their statements twice last year and again for the third time in March this year.

The money laundering probe is based on a CBI FIR that had earlier accused Parabolic Drugs and its promoters Vineet and Pranav Gupta of defrauding public sector banks to the tune of Rs 1,600 crore. The agency, which had sought 14 days’ of remand of the accused, argued that their custodial interrogation was important to establish money trail in the “proceeds of crime” generated from diversion of loans of over Rs 1,600 crore to related entities and failure to pay back to the bank.

Denying any connection with the drug manufacturer, Ashoka University, in its statement issued on Friday, had said the ED had sought information “in the matter of investigation into the case of Parabolic Drugs where Ashoka University founders, Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta are directors”. The university reiterated that “Parabolic Drugs is in no way linked to Ashoka University” and that it had no past or present relationship with the company.

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