Rs 4,701-cr assets of Guj firm attached in bank fraud case

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday attached assets worth over Rs 4,700 crore of Sterling Biotech Group, a Gujarat-based pharmaceutical firm, in connection with a Rs 5000-crore bank fraud and money laundering case, the agency said.

The agency said it issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and attached immovable properties of around 4,000 acres, plant and machinery, around 200 bank accounts of various linked companies and promoters, shares worth Rs 6.67 crore and a number of luxury cars of the Vadodara-based group. The ED had registered the case in last October.

It said "cross-border transactions" allegedly undertaken by the Sterling group were under probe and the ED was mulling approaching foreign jurisdictions to seize several oil rigs, barges and oilfields in Nigeria, for which the group had invested, and about 50 overseas bank accounts of the company. The agency attached Sandesara house in Juhu, Mumbai, a farm house in Ambad in Jalna district, a company office in Atladara in Vadodara, and a factory in Ooty in Tamil Nadu.

The agency had registered a money laundering case against the Sterling group and its absconding promoters Nitin and Chetan Sandesara in last October, taking cognisance of a CBI FIR on charges of alleged corruption. It had then con-

The loans were sanctioned by a consortium of banks like Andhra Bank, UCO, SBI, Allahabad Bank and BoI