ED files prosecution complaint against ex-promoters of Parabolic Drugs
Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has filed prosecution complaint (PC) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 on 26 December 2023 against Parabolic Drugs Limited, its former promoters Pranav Gupta and Vineet Gupta, and Chartered Accountant Surjeet Kumar Bansal before the Special Court, Chandigarh.
The Special Court has taken cognizance of the PC on 03 February 2024.
ED initiated investigation on the basis of FIR registered by CBI under various sections of IPC, 1860 and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against parabolic Drugs Ltd., its ex-promoter directors Pranav Gupta, Vineet Gupta and others.
ED investigation revealed that from 2009 to 2014, Parabolic Drug Ltd., its ex-promoters and other unknown public servants and private persons caused wrongful loss to the extent of Rs 1,626.7 crore to Central Bank of India, other banks and financial institutions.
During course of investigation, ED conducted searches on about 29 premises under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) against Parabolic Drugs Limited, their directors, key functionaries, beneficiaries of proceeds of crime and entry operators located in Chandigarh, Ambala, Panchkula, Sonepat, Mumbai and Delhi on 27 October 2023 and 15 December 2023.
The searches resulted in the recovery of movable and immovable assets to the tune of Rs 114 crore, digital devices and other incriminating documents. Subsequently, Pranav Gupta, Vineet Gupta and CA SK Bansal were arrested under section 19 of PMLA, 2002.
It is to be mentioned here that Chandigarh-based Parabolic Drugs was dragged to insolvency court by one of its vendors Weather Makers Private Limited in August 2018 for defaulting on a payment of Rs 72 lakh.
The company owed Rs 1,831 crore to its creditors. The NCLT in January 2021 approved the resolution plan submitted by Akums Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Under the resolution plan, Akum has provisioned paying an amount of Rs 115 crore against the total creditors’ claims of Rs 1,831 crore.
The remaining debt, of Rs. 1426 crore was to be converted into 142,64,29,679 equity shares of Rs. 10 each. These equity shares were to be allotted to the lenders in the proportion of their share in the debt. Hence, JM Financial ARC Ltd. was allotted 102,22,69,377 shares and Central Bank of India was allotted 9,91,99,625 shares.
However, the creditors have alleged that the resolution applicant passed a Board Resolution in February 2021 with regard to allocation of shares but there is no information available in the public domain as to whether reporting was done to ROC in Form MGT-14 as per the information available on ROC website.
The NCLT had, therefore, asked the resolution applicant to complete the requisite compliances.
Also Read: ED conducts raids at Bharat Papers premises across three states
