Delhi court issues notices to Sterling Biotech owners in Rs 8,100-crore bank loan fraud case
New Delhi, Oct 26 : A Delhi court Friday issued notices to Sterling Biotech promoters following an Enforcement Directorate's plea to declare them fugitive economic offenders in connection with a Rs 8,100-crore bank fraud case.
Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora issued the notices to the owners of the Gujarat-based pharmaceutical firm.
On October 23, the ED filed a supplementary chargesheet against seven persons in the court in the money laundering case.
So far, the agency has chargesheeted 191 accused, including seven individuals and 184 companies.
The accused included main promoters of Sterling Group Nitin Sandesara, Chetan Sandesara, Dipti Sandesara, Hitesh Patel, Rajbhushan Dixit, Chartered Accountant Hemant Hathi, and middleman Gagan Dhawan.
The companies were: Sterling Biotech Ltd, PMT Machines Ltd, Sterling SEZ and Infra Ltd, Sterling Port Ltd, Sterling Oil Resources Ltd and 179 shell firms.
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Court grants statutory bail to two more accused in Sabarimala gold loss cases
Kollam (Kerala) (PTI): A court here on Thursday granted statutory bail to more accused in two cases related to the alleged gold loss from the Sabarimala temple.
The Kollam Vigilance Court Judge Mohit CS granted bail to Chennai-based Smart Creations CEO Pankaj Bhandari and Ballari-based jeweller Govardhan Roddam in connection with cases involving gold loss from the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) gold plates and the door frames of the Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum) at the temple.
The duo was granted bail in both cases after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) failed to file charge sheets within 90 days of their arrest.
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Pankaj Bhandari is the 12th accused in the Dwarapalaka case and the ninth accused in the Sreekovil door frame case, while Govardhan Roddam is the 13th accused in the Dwarapalaka case and the 10th accused in the Sreekovil door frame case.
With the latest development, as many as 10 accused have now been released from jail after securing bail in the Sabarimala cases.
According to the investigation, the artefacts from Sabarimala were taken to Smart Creations in 2019 for replating, after which the SIT alleged that gold was lost.
Govardhan is also said to be a close associate of the prime accused, Unnikrishnan Potty.
The SIT, following searches at the residences and offices of the accused, had recovered gold allegedly equivalent to the reported losses from Sabarimala.
The SIT has informed the Kerala High Court that charge sheets in the cases will be filed before the end of March.
