New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) A city court today sought theresponse from the Enforcement Directorate on an applicationfiled by Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan seeking bail ina Rs 5,000-crore money laundering case.
Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma directed theagency to file its reply by November 29 when it will hear thematter.
In his application, the accused, who is currently in thejudicial custody, sought the relief saying he was not requiredfor further investigation and no purpose will be served bykeeping him in custody.
Dhawan, arrested on November 1, was sent to custody onNovember 15 by the court after Rana had said he was not neededfor further custodial interrogation.
The ED had alleged that Dhawan had facilitated thedirectors of Gujarat-based pharma firm Sterling Biotech Ltd(SBL) in the purchase of several properties and helped inmisuse and diversion of the credit facilities of several banktotalling 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 variousgroup companies of SBL group," according to the agency.
The lower court had on November 14 issued non-bailablewarrants against two other persons -- SBL directors Nitin andChetan Sandesara. The agency told the court that Chetan mayhave left the country.
Dhawan was arrested in an alleged bank fraud caseinvolving SBL under sections of the Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA).
The firm and Dhawan were also being probed by the ED forallegedly bribing senior Income Tax department officials in anearlier criminal complaint.
The CBI had recently booked Sterling Biotech, itsdirectors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara,Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara andVilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, formerdirector Andhra Bank Anup Garg and some unidentified personsin connection with the alleged bank fraud case.
It had alleged that the company had taken loans of overRs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which hadturned into non-performing assets.
The FIR had also alleged that the total pending dues ofthe group companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31,2016. The ED had taken a cognisance of this FIR to file amoney laundering case against them. PTI UKARC.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.