A special court on Monday declared Nitin Sandesara, Chetan Sandesara, his wife Dipti and Hiteshkumar Narendrabhai Patel fugitive economic offenders on the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) request in connection with the Sterling Biotech case. It will facilitate confiscation of their assets.
Also read: Judge recuses from ₹8.1K crore bank loan fraud case against Sterling Biotech owners
The ED is conducting the money laundering probe based on two FIRs registered by the CBI against Sterling Biotech and others in October 2017. In one case, the agencies have alleged routing of undisclosed funds belonging to unknown Income-Tax Department officials, while the second case pertains to bank loan defaults of ₹8,100 crore.
The case in which the four accused have been declared fugitives involves alleged laundering of over ₹100 crore.
In the bank loan case, the ED has so far attached assets worth more than ₹14,500 crore, located in India and overseas. Charge sheets have also been filed against the accused persons.
Non-bailable warrants
A court had issued non-bailable warrants against them on October 25, 2018. The key suspects had fled the country. Despite repeated summons, they did not return to face trial.
Based on intelligence reports, provisional arrest requests with respect to Nitin Sandesara and Dipti were sent to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but it did not yield any results. Further inputs have indicated that the accused persons could be either in the UAE, Nigeria, United States or the United Kingdom.
It is alleged that the Sterling Biotech promoters used their employees to float 249 domestic and 96 offshore shell entities in several countries, including Nigeria, UAE, U.K., British Virgin Islands, the U.S., Mauritius, Panama and Barbados. They round-tripped standby letters of credit funds to the tune of ₹4,500 crore.
Among the properties attached by the ED are a residential flat in London; four Nigeria-based oil rigs and an oil field in the name of Sterling Energy Exploration Private Co. Limited; several ships registered in Panama, in the name of Atlantic Blue Water Services; and an Aircraft 200 Gulfstream held is in the name of SAIB LLC and registered in the U.S.
