Ashoka Univ co-founders used forged documents to avail bank loans: ED

Pranav Gupta and Vineet Gupta, directors of Chandigarh-based Parabolic Drugs Ltd, were actively and directly involved in generation, layering and siphoning of the proceeds of crime, availing bank finances by illegally inflating the value of primary security against which drawings were allowed by the bank, an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe has revealed.

Pranav Gupta, Vineet Gupta and SK Bansal, a chartered accountant, were arrested on 28 October. The ED registered a money laundering case on the basis of an FIR registered by CBI against Parabolic Drugs, its promoter-directors Pranav and Vineet Gupta, and others. Pranav and Vineet Gupta were also co-founders of Ashoka University. 

The court remanded them to ED custody until 2 November, which has been further extended to 4 November. 

The ED had conducted searches at 20 locations in Chandigarh, Panchkula, Sonepat and Delhi in a bank fraud case involving Rs 1,626.70 crore against Parabolic Drugs, and recovered movable and immovable assets to the tune of Rs 114 crore. 

The ED in a statement said it carried out searches under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on 27 October and recovered digital devices and various incriminating documents besides the moveable and immoveable properties.

The financial probe agency also said its investigation revealed that from 2009-14, Parabolic Drugs, its directors and others defrauded the Central Bank of India and other consortium banks. 

"Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta were actively and directly involved in generation, layering and siphoning of proceeds of crime by way of availing bank finances by illegally inflating the value of primary security against which drawings were allowed by the bank," the ED said. 

It also said under their command and control, the loan funds were diverted and fraudulently rotated through their group companies and various shell companies. 

The ED said its probe revealed that Pranav Gupta and Vineet Gupta and Parabolic Drugs defrauded the banks by availing loans or financial facilities based upon forged and fabricated documents. 

"SK Bansal, CA was their statutory auditor during the period of offence. He assisted Pranav Gupta and Vineet Gupta in illegally changing colour of the loan funds from liabilities to assets by way of circuitous transactions," the agency said. "Bansal intentionally concealed crucial financial facts from lending banks and also issued false certificates for obtaining loans."