CBI Books Chandigarh Pharma Firm Owners In Bank Fraud Case, looted almost 1,627 Crores

Chandigarh: CBI has booked two Chandigarh Based pharmaceutical company owners, Pranav Gupta and Vineet Gupta among others for alleged bank fraud to the tune of Rs 1,626.74 crore. 

Amid a complaint from the Central Bank of India that Parabolic Drugs Ltd (PDL) and its promoters and directors had cheated a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), a case has been registered against them. 

The Guptas used forged documents to get loans sanctioned and diverted the funds to other bank accounts, from where they allegedly created assets and personal enrichment, CBI leveled.

The CBI said in a statement, “It was alleged that the accused had cheated the consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 1,626.74 crore (approx) by criminal conspiracy, forgery, using forged documents knowing the same to be forged & availed loan funds.”

The accused then diverted funds, CBI stated.

The Guptas are among founders and trustees of Ashoka University.

In a statement on Thursday, the university said: “The CBI investigation of Parabolic Drugs and its Directors has nothing to do with Ashoka University. Any attempt to create a link is frivolous and misleading. The University has over 200 founders and donors who have made personal philanthropic contributions to Ashoka. Their individual business dealings and operations have no connection to the University.

“In keeping with the high standards for governance at Ashoka, Vineet and Pranav Gupta have already voluntarily stepped down from all Boards and Committees of the University pending the CBI case and are cooperating fully with the investigations.”

The FIR was registered on December 29 and on the same time CBI raided 12 locations, including Chandigarh, Panchkula, Ludhiana, Faridabad and Delhi, at the office and residential premises of the accused.

“The search resulted in recovery of ncriminating documents, articles, cash, to the tune of Rs 1.59 crore,” the CBI stated. 

The FIR alleged that the duo did “forgery of documents and submitted false supporting documents to induce banks to sanction credit facilities in favour of PDL and/or make payments to entities on behalf of PDL against fictitious transactions.”

According to the FIR, they “deployed devious tactics to mis-utilise the funds and siphon/divert the said funds to avoid repayment and/or personally enrich themselves and thereby causing losses to the banks. Once funds were diverted to alternate non-Consortium Bank accounts, the said amounts were thereafter siphoned away by the Accused Persons into purchasing assets and/or to personally enrich themselves.”

It is claimed in the FIR that their father, Jai Dev Gupta, was appointed non-official director of UCO Bank by the Union Finance Ministry in July 2008. But contrary to rules, Jai Dev allegedly did not declare that he held shares worth more than Rs 5 lakh in PDL, which was getting credit facilities from UCO Bank since 2002, the FIR stated.

“Jai Dev Gupta did not do so with the intent of influencing financial decisions of UCO Bank in favour of PDL…in 2009, the credit limit of PDL was enhanced from INR 56 crore to approximately INR 95 crore. As a reward and incentive for ensuring enhancement of credit facilities, immediately thereafter, the value of share of Jai Dev Gupta in PDL was increased from INR 5,36,000 to INR 30,63,000,” the FIR alleged.

The list of accused includes, MD, Pranav Gupta, and director, Vineet Gupta, the other accused include PDL directors Deepali Gupta, Rama Gupta, Jagjit Singh Chahal, Sanjeev Kumar, Vandana Singla, Ishrat Gill and J D Gupta; and guarantors T N Goyal and Nirmal Bansal, apart from unknown public servants and private persons.

Vineet Gupta did not respond to calls made by The Indian Express. Messages sent to him did not elicit any response.

According to the FIR, the Chandigarh-based company had offered personal guarantees of Pranav Gupta, Vineet Gupta, Rama Gupta, Nirmal Bansal, T N Goyal and J D Gupta, apart from guarantees of various companies owned by them for availing loans from the consortium.

“From 18.04.2012, the Company did not discharge its liabilities towards its suppliers for reasons known to the company for which it had got issued the Letters of Credit. Resultantly, the LCs starting getting devolved,” the FIR has said.

According to the FIR, in 2013 the company got its loan restructured but continued to default on debt payments.

“Even after Restructuring, the Company did not operate the account as per agreed terms and conditions,” the FIR stated. “Company availed bank finance by overstating the value of primary security against which drawings were allowed by the bank. The matter came to light when Stock Auditor appointed by Lead bank in his report dated 30/09/2012 informed that value of stock taken by the company in their stock statement dated 31/08/2012 is on higher side and Stock Auditor reduced the DP (Drawing Power) by Rs 50.34 crore. Statutory Auditor also commented on WIP (Work-in-Progress) stock which is slow / non-moving for more than one year.”

On May 26, 2014, the loan was declared NPA by the lead bank, SBI, with effect from December 31, 2012, the complaint mentioned.

“The company did not arrange funds to meet the liabilities against the devolved LCs and other commitments. The bank had to declare the account as NPA on 28/10/2014 with outstanding balance of Rs 88.92 crore,” it stated.

According to the FIR, an insolvency application was admitted against Parabolic Drugs on August 20, 2018.

“As per the terms of credit facilities extended by the Consortium Banks, the management of PDL were not permitted to maintain bank accounts outside the Consortium Banks without their permission,” it mentioned. “However, with the intention of diverting and siphoning off funds, the Accused Persons also opened bank accounts” in five banks outside of the consortium.

The FIR has stated that assets created by the accused have been identified through an asset restructuring company and the accused diverted loan funds into these assets for personal gain.