The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday arrested two promoters of a pharma company based in Chandigarh and a chartered accountant of the same firm in connection with a money laundering probe.

The agency, which investigates financial crimes linked to money laundering, arrested the promoters of the company named Parabolic Drugs, Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta. They also arrested CA S K Bansal. The trio has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Vineet Gupta and Pravan Gupta co-founded the famous Ashoka University. They stepped down from their respective posts in 2022 after the CBI arrested a case against them and their pharma company in 2021.

The CBI had accused the promoters and the pharma company of defrauding a consortium of banks led by the Central Bank of India of ₹1626.74 crore.

On Friday, ED carried out raids at multiple locations linked to the company. They searched 17 locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Ambala.

Yesterday, the university said the Enforcement Directorate had sought information linked to Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta who stepped down as directors.

“Ashoka University reiterates that Parabolic Drugs is in no way linked to Ashoka University. Ashoka University has no past or current relationship with Parabolic Drugs, the company being investigated, and any attempt to create a link is without any basis and misleading,” it had said.

“Vineet and Pranav Gupta are two among the more than 200 founders and donors of Ashoka University, who have contributed to Ashoka’s creation and growth in their personal philanthropic capacity and whose individual businesses have absolutely no bearing on the university,” it added in a statement.

The CBI has accused the private company of securing loans as part of a criminal conspiracy through forgery and funneling the money for other uses.

The Enforcement Directorate suspects that the Guptas “layered and diverted” bank loan funds to the tune of ₹7 crore to the university, PTI reported quoting sources. It suspects that an amount from the loan funds was allegedly transferred to an infrastructure firm in 2013. The money was allegedly transferred to Vineet Gupta’s accounts. He later forwarded ₹1 crore to the university, the agency reported.

With inputs from PTI