The Ahmedabad Bench of Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), presided over by Laxman Madnani, has ordered M/s Sterling Oil Resource Limited and its directors Nitin and Chetan Sandesara to pay dues of Rs343.36 crore owed to nationalised banks within two months. DRT also issued a recovery certificate, which is based on Bank of Baroda’s (BoB) application for recovery of the dues by selling the company’s mortgaged assets.
In the application, BoB has said that Sandesara brothers had agreed and guaranteed to repay the dues to the slew of banks, which include BoB and Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, Punjab National Bank and UCO Bank. The banks have landed term loans of Rs283.64 crore and Rs76.40 crore in 2009. This money was then diverted to other entities by the Sandesara group and so the banks have started the recovery process.
Sandesaras brothers have been accused of defrauding the nationalized banks with the scam amounting to a whopping Rs15000 crores. The two brothers along with their families are labelled fugitives. In 2017, the two brothers along with their families fled the country and are now believed to be in Albania.
The CBI has booked Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech Limited as well as its directors and others in the case for causing wrongful loss to the banks, through criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, and criminal misconduct.
