It’s not just Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi who have led the Enforcement Directorate into a cross continent chase. The latest cat and mouse chase is for Sandesara brothers, promoters of Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech Limited (SBL). According to the ED, the accused have left the country’s shores, violating the Look Out Circulars and have refused to comply with summons despite being asked to join the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“In other words, the accused have deliberately refused to join investigation by using dubious means. The non-cooperative attitude of the accused has made this investigation arduous and time consuming,” said the ED officials.
On Tuesday, the ED provisionally attached five immovable properties, and five bank accounts and shares worth Rs 20.77 crore belonging to Shimnit Utsch India Private Limited and its directors under the PMLA. ED sources said a total amount of Rs 55.13 crore was diverted as proceeds of crime to the accounts of Shimnit in the garb of share application money. Out of the diverted money, an amount of Rs 23.50 crore was still lying with its promoters. Earlier, the ED had provisionally attached movable and immovable properties to the tune of Rs 14,523 crore.
“With the latest attachment, the total attachment in this case stands at Rs 14,543 crore out of the proceeds of crime of more than Rs 14690.95 crore,” said the ED officials.
But the chase isn’t complete yet, even though the money has come back. The big question remains if the ED is able to lay its hands on its long list of fugitives outside India, hiding in African countries or Caribbean islands.
The ED has declared Nitin Sandesara, Chetan Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara and Hitesh Patel fugitives under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act by an order of the special court.
Incidentally, it is not just the ED, but a string of agencies are sitting on the piles of evidences to nail the accused. The CBI, Banks and Financial Institutions, Sub-Registrars, Income Tax Department and National Securities Depositories Limited and Central Securities Depositories Limited to name a few.
It was in August 2017, when the CBI had first registered an FIR against the SBL Group and its promoters, saying it had availed loans of more than Rs 5,000 crores, which have turned into Non-Performing Assets (NPA).
When the CBI submitted a final report to the court against the accused—Sandesaras family and others— under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, it said Chetan as the director of SBL and Sterling Port Ltd entered into criminal conspiracy with other accused persons to cheat Andhra Bank by availing various loan facilities in the name of the companies. They induced the bank by submitting false and forged documents like transport receipts, invoices and insurance certificates and also accepted these documents and delivery challans on behalf of his paper companies, the agency said.
A list of charges has been drawn by the agency, which are part of the alleged criminal conspiracy. During investigations, the banks also informed that the loans availed by SBL and its group companies, to the tune of Rs 10,652.27 crores were declared as “FRAUD” on June 2019. The CBI probe also showed that the funds received from the banks were not utilized for mandated purpose but were diverted, layered, and laundered through group shell companies. On the basis of the CBI FIR, the ED stepped in.
