Surana multi-crore loan default case: Petition of relative dismissed

CHENNAI: Justice AD Jagadish Chandira of the Madras High Court dismissed the petition filed by P Anand, a relative of prime accused Dinesh Chand Surana, Managing Director of Surana Group, in the whopping multi-crore loan default case.

The judge rejected the petition on the grounds that if the accused was allowed to walk free in the case, he would tamper with the evidence. According to the Enforcement Directorate’s standing counsel, N Ramesh was booked for the charges that he was managing a shell company associated with the Surana Group of Company and helped the company to obtain loans from several public sector banks. When the petitioner submitted that he is illiterate and he was unaware of the transactions and the company proceedings, the judge rejected such submission asking how the accused could have functioned as the director/proprietor/partner for at least 10 shell companies that had links with the Surana group despite his illiteracy.

The judge further wrote that several witnesses have given testimonies about Anand acting as a dummy of the main accused Shri Dinesh Chand Surana. “The investigation so far done by the respondent (Directorate of Enforcement), prima facie, leads to an inference that it is a classic case of money laundering by round-tripping of money,” the judge held.