Vijayawada (PTI): A former Director of Andhra Bank, Anup Prakash Garg, was arrested on Saturday for his alleged involvement in a money laundering case. According to officials, the bank fraud is said to be to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore. A Gujarat-based pharma firm is also involved in the case.

It may be recalled that a Delhi-based businessman named Gagan Dhawan was arrested in November last year under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Prakash Garg has been named as an accused in the case by the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI.

The ED registered a money laundering case in this instance later taking cognisance of an earlier CBI FIR. The agency said it found during probe that "certain entries" in a diary seized by the Income Tax Department in 2011 showed various cash payments amounting to Rs 1.52 crore made to one "Mr. Garg, Director, Andhra Bank" between 2008- 2009 by the Sandesara brothers.

It said "various cash payments were made to Garg, as reflected in the said entries, on the instructions of Sandesara brothers, by withdrawing cash from the bank accounts of several benami companies of the Sandesara brothers".

The ED had alleged that Garg had infused several crores of his unaccounted cash in various companies through many Kolkata based bogus shell companies with the help of cash/cheque entry operators in Kolkata to launder the proceeds of crime obtained by him from the Sandesaras.

The CBI had booked Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case.

It had alleged that the company had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which had turned into non-performing assets. The FIR had also alleged that the total pending dues of the group companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016.