The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Sandeep Gupta, the former promoter and suspended managing director of Richa Industries Limited (RIL). He was taken into custody for eight days for questioning. The Gurugram court sent him to ED remand. The case arises from a First Information Report by the Central Bureau of Investigation accusing Gupta of cheating and criminal conspiracy. The charges claim Gupta caused losses of ₹236 crore to public sector banks between 2015 and 2018. According to the ED, Richa Industries recorded fake sales without supplying goods. Fabric sales of ₹7.42 crore and solar-related sales of ₹8.50 crore were falsely booked to shell companies run by entry operators. The agency said invoices and ledger entries were forged and manipulated to hide missing payments. This inflated the company’s turnover and misled lenders and stakeholders. Richa Industries also made bogus purchases of Zero Liquid Discharge plants and machinery worth ₹9.23 crore from a non-operational firm with mismatched business details. Between 2015-16 and 2017-18, about ₹16.40 crore was siphoned to group firms posing as loan repayments. In 2018-19, company funds bought control of Richa Krishna Constructions Private Limited, diverting a key Rohtak project during the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). Shares of Richa Infrastructure were transferred at a "gross undervaluation," leading to financial losses for RIL. Gupta allegedly diverted assets before the CIRP started and created several shell companies to hide this. One such company, Saariga Constructions Private Limited (SCPL), was set up using a former Richa employee. The ED said SCPL fraudulently gained voting rights in the Committee of Creditors to let Gupta's family control the CIRP. During insolvency, Gupta and his family unlawfully controlled RIL, signed agreements, and took remuneration, breaking legal rules. CIRP did not yield a resolution plan, so the National Company Law Tribunal ordered liquidation on June 11, 2025, and appointed a liquidator. An e-auction happened on October 16, 2025, with a reserve price of ₹96 crore. A consortium of Kaveri Industries and Narendra Kumar Srivastava won. Public sector banks like IOB and Union Bank received ₹40.29 crore against ₹696 crore in claims, causing about 94% losses to them. The ED investigation continues.