New Delhi. The Supreme Court has given a big relief to Sterling Group promoters Nitin and Chetan Sandesara, who are involved in bank fraud, and has ordered that if they deposit Rs 5100 crore, then all the pending criminal and investigative proceedings against them will be considered completely ended. Both the brothers will have to deposit this settlement amount by 17th December. Sterling Group was accused of defrauding Indian banks of $1.7 billion (about Rs 12,000 crore) in 2017. Nitin and Chetan Sandesara after this they fled the country. In 2018, he was included in the list of 14 fugitive economic offenders along with Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehal Choksi.
While issuing this order last week, the bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Vijay Bishnoi made it clear that this decision has been given in the specific circumstances of the case and it will not be seen as a precedent in future. But many experts say that this decision will have a deep impact and may also affect the cases related to other fugitives like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, who may seek similar relief.
When agencies tightened their grip, Sandesara brothers came on line
The Sandesara brothers’ willingness to pay also indicates that the agencies had largely withheld their funding, leaving them with no option but to compromise. In September 2020, not only Nitin and Chetan Sandesara, but also Chetan’s wife Deepti and relative Hitesh Patel were declared fugitive economic offenders. According to the ED, since 2017, all four have been roaming in many countries including Nigeria, UAE, UK and America to avoid arrest.
Assets worth Rs 14000 crore attached
In this case, ED had attached assets worth more than Rs 14,500 crore. Of these, assets worth Rs 4,700 crore were in India and assets worth more than Rs 9,778 crore were abroad. These included oil rigs, ships, aircraft and properties in America, Britain and other countries. This action increased a lot of pressure on the Sandesara family.
One of the reasons behind the government accepting the proposal of the Sandesara family was that a large part of the attached properties were in foreign territories, which were difficult to dispose of as they were mostly paper attachments and the foreign agencies were not cooperating with the ED.
The amount has been recovered earlier also
The total dues of the Sandesara family including interest and penalty were more than Rs 14,000 crore. Of that, about Rs 3,500 crore was recovered by the banks by the deposits made by the Sandesara family and by selling assets worth Rs 1,100 crore during the bankruptcy process. Now after receiving Rs 5100 crore more, the total recovery will be Rs 9,600 crore.
