According to an ED official, the agency has attached eight immovable properties, three vehicles and several bank accounts/shares/mutual funds having a total value of Rs 8.79 crore belonging to four persons under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the Sandesara Group case.
In this case, the ED has seized Morea’s properties to the tune of Rs 1.4 crore, besides attaching properties worth Rs 2.41 crore in the name of Siddiqui.
Apart from them, the ED has also taken stern action against Sanjay Khan and one DJ Aqeel Abdulkhalil Bachooali by attaching their properties worth Rs 3 crore and Rs 1.98 crore respectively.
A case of money laundering has also been lodged on the basis of an FIR filed by the CBI against several entities for cheating various public sector banks.
The investigations revealed that Dino Morea received Rs 1.4 crore, DJ Aqeel received Rs 12.54 crore, Irfan Siddiqui got Rs 3.51 crore and Sanjay Khan received Rs 3 crore from the Sandesaras bank, said an official.
During the probe it was revealed that Sandesaras transactions were ‘proceeds of crime’ due to which earlier, the ED had attached properties to the tune of Rs 14,513 crore in connection with the case.
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Notably, the total proceeds of crime, in this case, are “over Rs 1600 crore and so far ED have been able to attach properties worth Rs 14,521.80 crore,” claimed an official.
The ED has also filed a
charge-sheet along with four supplementary charge-sheets in connection with the
case and has arrested four persons so far.
The money laundering cases involves a Rs 14,500 crore bank loan fraud allegedly committed by Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, Chetankumar Jayantilal Sandesara and Deepti Sandesara, main promoters and directors of Sterling Biotech. As of now, all of them are missing and it is believed that Nitin and Chetanmumar is brother and has eloped to Nigeria in 2017 along with the third available. However, a special court has declared them fugitive and authorities are trying to get them extradited.
As per the investigators, this is a bigger bank scam in volume than the Punjab National Bank fraud involving jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
Notably, the Sandesaras are also facing separate trials by the CBI and the Income Tax Department for their alleged nexus with high-profile politicians and charges of corruption and tax evasion.