The company was earlier booked by the CBI in August for allegedly bribing senior Income Tax department officials.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against Sterling Biotech Limited for allegedly bribing senior tax officials who are part of a conspiracy to default loans worth over Rs 5,383 crore. It is alleged that the company had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank which have turned into non-performing assets.
"The directors of the company connived with the in-house chartered accountant and falsified material records of the company, such as production, turnover and investments in capital assets," the FIR stated.
The agency has booked Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech, its Directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, Chartered Accountant Hemant Hathi, former Director Andhra Bank Anup Garg and some unidentified persons.
The company was earlier booked by the CBI in August for allegedly bribing senior Income Tax department officials.
On June 28, 2011, the I-T department had conducted searches and seizures at 25 premises of Sterling Biotech Ltd. During the raids, a diary containing hand-written records of financial transactions was found.
In the fresh case, the CBI has booked all the accused for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption among other charges.
According to CBI officials, the directors fabricated documents and manipulated balancesheets to get loans sanctioned from the banks which were later diverted for personal use.
"In three areas manipulation was substantial — reporting of turnover of companies, reporting of investments in capital goods (fixed assets) and taxes to be paid on the manipulated turnover," it alleged.
The agency said the company had purchased capital goods worth only Rs 50 crore for the year March 31, 2008, but in bank accounts it showed Rs 405 crore of which Rs 355 crore was to be diverted through the group companies.
"Actual turnover of all factories of SBL was Rs 304.80 crore during 2007-08, whereas in the Income Tax return and balance sheets it was shown as Rs 918.30 crore," the FIR alleged.
The FIR said benami entities of the group were used for trading in the shares of SBL as off market transactions.
Charges
- The company was earlier booked by the central probing agency in August for allegedly bribing senior Income Tax department officials.
- The directors allegedly connived with the in-house chartered accountant and falsified material records of the company to get loans sanctioned from banks.
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