ED raids in Mumbai, Haryana against pharma company in Rs 220-crore fraud case

The Enforcement Directorate’s Mumbai wing on Friday conducted searches at eight locations in Mumbai and Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar as part of an ongoing probe into a Rs 220-crore bank loan fraud case and seized assets worth Rs 14.53 crore, officials said.

The searches were carried out in connection with the case against a pharma company, Sharon Bio Medicine Limited, Mohan Prasad Kala, Savita Satish Gowda, Lalit Shambu Misra and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

During the search operations, movable assets including bank funds, Demat accounts valued at Rs 14.53 crore were seized or frozen along with various other incriminating documents, digital devices and immovable property related documents, the probe agency’s officials said.

The ED initiated an investigation on the basis of a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), Mumbai against Sharon Bio Medicine Limited and others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 for committing fraud against banks by using bogus documents. The pharma company allegedly caused losses to the banks to the tune of Rs 220 crore.

The ED’s probe revealed that the SBML is a pharmaceutical company engaged in manufacturing of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and was availing all kinds of credit facilities from various banks using forged documents and bogus contracts.

The firm allegedly misused the credit facilities of banks by diverting/siphoning off the same for creation of assets.

Further investigation and trailing of bank funds revealed that a web of shell companies were created with which, initially, SBML had made bogus sales and bogus purchases to inflate their turnover and also furnished such fake contracts and forged documents with banks to avail and enhance their credit facilities.

After availing the loans, funds were siphoned off through multiple layers of shell entities created in the names of employees of SBML and relatives of key persons related to the firm which were diverted for creation of assets.

Further investigation is under progress, the ED officials added.