Rs 5,000 cr bank fraud: Nitin Sandesara, family may have fled to Nigeria
NEW DELHI: A month after reports suggested that Nitin Sandesara, owner of Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech and wanted by the CBI and the ED in a Rs 5,000 crore bank fraud, was detained in Dubai, it has now emerged that he is not in the UAE and could have fled to Nigeria.
According to top sources in the two agencies, Sandesara and other family members including brother Chetan Sandesara and sister-in-law Diptiben Sandesara were believed to be hiding in Nigeria. India doesn’t have an extradition treaty or a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with Nigeria and bringing them back from the African country would be difficult, sources said.
An officer, who didn’t wish to be named, said, “There were reports that Nitin Sandesara was detained by UAE authorities in Dubai in the second week of August. It was incorrect information. He was never detained in Dubai. He and other family members probably left for Nigeria much before that.”
However, the investigation agencies are planning to send a request to UAE authorities asking them to “provisionally arrest” the Sandesaras if they are seen there. Efforts are also on get Interpol red corner notices issued against the Sandesaras. It is not known if the Sandesaras travelled to Nigeria on Indian passports or some other country’s document.
The CBI and the ED have booked Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech+ , its directors Nitin, Chetan and Dipti Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, former Andhra Bank director Anup Garg and unidentified persons for cheating banks of Rs 5,000 crore.
The ED arrested Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan and Garg and attached assets worth Rs 4,700 crore of the pharmaceutical firm in June. However, officials said bringing the Sandesaras back to India to face criminal trial was important as they had diverted huge amounts of money abroad.
It is alleged that the Sandesaras set up more than 300 shell and benami companies in India and abroad which were used to divert loans. Officials said the modus operandi for money laundering used by the Sandesaras involved formation of shell/benami companies, manipulating balance sheets, inflating turnover and insider shares trading. These firms were controlled by the Sandesaras through dummy directors, who were or are employees of various companies of the Sterling group. Bogus sales/purchases were shown between the benami companies and the Sterling group firms to divert loans and inflate turnover to obtain further loans from banks.
Courtesy: timesofindia
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23-year-old woman found dead at Delhi home; suicide suspected
New Delhi (PTI): A 23-year-old woman was found dead in her house in Delhi's Prem Nagar area, with police suspecting it to be a case of suicide, an official said on Tuesday.
The deceased, identified as Anjali Singh, was found motionless in her room on Monday by her sister and her neighbour.
Police said her father, Vinod Kumar Singh (51), told them that he and his wife were away at work at the time of the incident, while their son and the other daughter were also not at home at the time of the incident.
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According to the family, the room in which Anjali was found was locked from the inside. The door was later forcibly opened by a neighbour and her sister with the help of a crowbar.
Her body was found lying on the bed inside the room, police said.
Preliminary inquiry revealed that Anjali had allegedly hanged herself using a piece of cloth tied to the ceiling fan.
It is suspected that the noose eventually might have loosened or torn off, resulting in her being found lying on the bed.
Family members informed the police that Anjali was a final-year student of a librarian science course from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). About a week ago, her final-year examination results were declared, and she had failed, following which she had been under depression, they said.
The family has not raised any allegation of foul play, police said, adding that no suicide note or external injury marks were found on the body during the initial inspection.
Inquest proceedings have been initiated in the matter as per the law. The body has been sent for post-mortem examination to ascertain the exact cause of death, and further investigation is underway, police added.
