Parabolic Drugs Case: Company directors changed loan funds from liabilities to assets: ED

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

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Chandigarh, November 4

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that the directors of M/s Parabolic Drugs Ltd (PDL), Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta, changed the colour of the loan funds from “liabilities to assets” and layered, diverted, and siphoned off them “by way of circuitous transactions” using the platform of their group companies.

The Guptas were arrested on October 28 and were remanded to ED custody until November 2. They were further sent to two-day custody today, after the ED told the court that it had “ample materials/records such as bank statements received on November 2” that were required to be enquired from the accused.

Accused co-founders of Ashoka University

• The directors, Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta, are co-founders of Ashoka University, Sonepat
• The ED had conducted search operations on 20 premises on October 27 in Chandigarh, Panchkula, Sonepat and Delhi, resulting in the recovery of movable and immovable assets worth Rs 114 crore, digital devices, and various documents.
• The university has issued a statement that they are not linked to the drugs company under question

The ED’s case, registered in 2022, is based on a CBI FIR, dated December 6, 2021. The FIR was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act against PDL and its directors. From 2009 to 2014, Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta, and their associates allegedly caused a loss of Rs 1,626.70 crore to the Central Bank of India and other consortium banks and financial institutions.

The ED told a trial court in Chandigarh that investigations had revealed that the directors illegally availed services of shell companies in the course of committing offence of money laundering. They allegedly inflated the value of primary security against which drawings were allowed by the bank. They were the co-founders of Ashoka University, Sonepat, said the ED, but the university has issued a statement that they were not linked to PDL.

“They (Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta) were involved in the issuance of fictitious bills/performa invoices submitted to the bank for issuance of DD/cheques worth Rs 4.71 crore to SAJ Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, wherein they were directors during the period of offence. Further, under their command, M/s Parabolic Drugs Ltd raised fake and unrelated goods’ invoices and illegally received entries from shell companies,” ED counsel HPS Verma stated before the court.

Another accused, Surjeet Kumar Bansal, and his chartered accountancy firm, SK Bansal and Company, assisted in the generation, acquisition and possession of the proceeds of crime by the Guptas, claimed the ED. This was done through false CA certificates, which were used for availing loans, added the ED.