Andhra Bank Ex-official Arrested in Loan Fraud Case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested former director of Andhra Bank in a Rs 5,000 crore bank fraud case involving Gujarat based pharmacy firm, reported PTI.

Anup Prakash Garg was arrested on Friday evening. This has been the second arrested in this case, the first being Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan.
Garg has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is expected to be produced before a special court.

The agency found "certain entries" in a diary seized by the Income Tax Department in 2011 during its probe that showed
various cash payments amounting to Rs 1.52 crore made to "Mr. Garg, Director, Andhra Bank" between 2008- 2009 by the Sandesara brothers.

It also said that "various cash payments were made to Garg, as reflected in the said entries, on the instructions of Sandesara brothers, by withdrawing cash from the bank accounts of several benami companies of the Sandesara brothers".

The ED had alleged that Garg had infused several crores of his unaccounted cash in various companies through many Kolkata based bogus shell companies with the help of cash/cheque entry operators in Kolkata to launder the proceeds of crime obtained by him from the Sandesaras.

The CBI had booked Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, 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.

Inputs from PTI