NEW DELHI, Oct 10: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Rakesh Kumar Gupta, chairman of the Delhi based Sadhna Group, in a money laundering case involving alleged irregularities in insolvency proceedings and financial transactions linked to a media company, officials said on Saturday.
Gupta, 63, was arrested in Delhi around 10:25 pm on Friday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He was subsequently produced before Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler at his residential camp office in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, at around 2 am on Saturday.
The court remanded Gupta to five days of ED custody after the agency sought seven days to question him. The investigation centres on allegations that insolvency proceedings involving Sadhna Media Pvt. Ltd. (SMPL) were manipulated to secure an unusually large reduction in outstanding tax liabilities.
The case originated from a September FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police. According to the allegations outlined in the complaint, Gupta allegedly engineered the company’s insolvency through connected creditors who controlled 99.41 per cent of its Committee of Creditors (CoC).
Investigators allege that the process resulted in Income Tax dues amounting to Rs 110.10 crore being settled for just Rs 20 lakh, causing a substantial potential loss to the public exchequer.
The ED has told the court that the alleged proceeds of crime in the case amount to approximately Rs 168 crore.
The complaint also alleges that more than Rs 2 crore was received in cash through cryptocurrency-related transactions or hawala channels following the resale of SMPL and Aryan TV. Gupta is further accused of facilitating payments of Rs 4.48 crore to connected creditors, including Rs 2.99 crore to his own company, Sharpline Broadcast.
The allegations are under investigation and have not been established as proven offences.
SEBI findings form part of investigation
The ED has also referred to an order issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in May 2025 concerning alleged manipulation of Sadhna Broadcast shares.
According to the agency’s remand papers, the market regulator described Gupta as the alleged mastermind behind the manipulation and held him jointly and severally liable for approximately Rs 58 crore.
The defence has argued that the SEBI order was challenged and that the penalty imposed on Gupta had been paid. His counsel also submitted that neither SEBI nor the Income Tax Department had filed a complaint against him and that he had obtained a no-dues certificate from the tax department.
The court, however, rejected the argument that the absence of a separate complaint from either department made the ED’s action unlawful.
It observed that the existence of the SEBI order, despite being under challenge, indicated that the allegations warranted investigation. The court also clarified that an order passed by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in 2024 concerning the media company could not, by itself, prevent the ED from examining the alleged financial irregularities.
The court noted that the allegations involved a potential loss of more than Rs 100 crore to the exchequer and said further investigation was necessary.
Court cites need to trace financial transactions
While considering the remand request, the court referred to the alleged movement of money outside formal banking channels and the need to examine data recovered from seized electronic devices.
The judge observed that investigators had not yet confronted Gupta with the data extracted from the seized devices. According to the court, examining the material and tracing the alleged money trail would be difficult to complete while the accused remained in judicial custody.
The court consequently found the arrest to be in accordance with the law and permitted the ED to question Gupta in custody for five days.
The investigation is expected to focus on the circumstances surrounding SMPL’s insolvency, the settlement of its tax liabilities, transactions involving connected creditors and the alleged transfer of funds through non-banking channels.
The case also raises questions about the use of insolvency proceedings and creditor arrangements in transactions involving companies with substantial outstanding liabilities. Investigators will need to establish the roles of the individuals and entities involved and determine whether the transactions constituted proceeds of crime under the PMLA.
The ED’s allegations, the defence’s submissions and the court’s observations form part of the ongoing legal proceedings. The investigation will determine the extent of Gupta’s alleged involvement and whether the financial transactions violated applicable laws.