ED attaches 4,701 cr assets of Sterling Biotech Group

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 4,701 crore, including 4000 acres of land, of a Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company in connection with a money laundering case arising out of a Rs 5,000 crore loan fraud case.

The probe agencies, including the ED and the CBI, has claimed that Sterling Biotech Group and its absconding promoters "fraudulently obtained" credit facilities of more than Rs 5,000 crore from various banks and it later turned into Non Performing Assets (NPA).

The ED had registered a case of money laundering against the firm and its promoters Nitin and Chetan Sandesara in October on the basis of a CBI FIR.

According to the ED, it has issued a provisional freezing order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Among the assets that were attached are a plant and machinery, 200 bank accounts of various companies linked to Sterling Biotech and its promoters, shares worth Rs 6.67 crore and several luxury cars.

Investigators said the loans were sanctioned by a consortium of banks like Andhra Bank, UCO Bank, State Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Bank of India.

The banks have declared as fraud various outstanding loan accounts to the tune of about Rs 5,000 crore in respect of various companies of Sterling Group, including Sterling Biotech Ltd, Sterling Port Ltd, PMT Machines Ltd., Sterling SEZ and Infrastructure Ltd and Sterling Oil Resources Ltd.

Three people, Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan, former Andhra Bank director Anup Garg and Sterling Biotech Ltd director Rajbhhushan Dixit, were earlier arrested in the case. The ED had alleged that Dhawan helped the directors of SBL in purchasing several properties.

"The facts of the case reveal that the amount involved in money laundering was layered through various inter-bank transfers and thereafter integrated and then utilised by Dhawan to acquire the immovable property and rights therein attempting to show the same as untainted property which is likely to be concealed, transferred or dealt with in a manner which may frustrate the proceedings under the Act (PMLA)," the ED had earlier said.

The CBI had earlier registered a case against Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, Garg and some unidentified persons.