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26-11-2025
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court has agreed to drop criminal charges against billionaire brothers Nitin and Chetan Sandesara if they pay a third of their dues in a $1.6-billion bank fraud, a step that could prompt other offenders to seek similar settlements.
After being accused of defaulting on domestic bank loans, the brothers, whose companies spanned industries from pharmaceuticals to energy, fled India in 2017 on Albanian passports, court filings showed. They denied wrongdoing.
The Supreme Court order, published on its website on Friday, is being reported for the first time. It quoted the brothers’ lawyer, Mukul Rohatgi, as saying they were agreeable to paying a settlement of $570 million, and set a December 17 deadline.
Rohatgi told the court his client were ready to settle “to get rid of all proceedings”, the order said, and asked for all proceedings to be quashed.
Rohatgi did not immediately respond to media queries.
The brothers figure among 14 designated fugitive economic offenders under a 2018 law that allows the freezing of assets.
Others in the category are Kingfisher Airlines founder Vijay Mallya and diamond magnate Nirav Modi, who both deny accusations of bank fraud.
The Sandesaras own Nigeria’s Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production, which contributes 2.5% of federal revenue, the company says on its website.
India’s federal crime fighting agency accused the brothers, known for throwing lavish parties attended by Bollywood stars, of duping banks to the tune of $1.6 billion, though they denied the allegations.
The ruling could open the way for economic offenders to strike similar settlements, leaving lenders struggling to recover their entire dues, said Debopriyo Moulik, a Supreme Court lawyer in independent practice.
“This is very similar to the approach adopted in foreign countries where fines are an alternative to facing trial,” Moulik said.
Brothers Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Chetankumar Jayantilal Sandesara, and their brother-in-law Hitesh Narender Bhai Patel, were wanted in India for money fraud. The three men have allegedly acquired loans amounting to around 1 billion euros from various Indian banks and then dispersed them through offshore companies.
The Sandesara brothers and Patel have been meanwhile leaving in Albania and allegedly investing in various construction projects within the capital Tirana and other seaside resorts. They had been granted Albanian citizenship by President Ilir Meta. Patel was detained as of March 20 after an Interpol notice issued against him, whereas the two brothers are on the run. Patel is expected to be soon extradited.
In October 2017 the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of the Central Bureau of Investigation in India registered a bank loan fraud case against the two Sandesara brothers and their Sterling Group. Together with other staff members the two brothers have cheated banks off around 643 million euros, whereas together with Patel to something more than 1 billion euros. Others to have been implicated in the fraud who have been registered by investigative agencies for prosecution complaints are Vadodara-based pharmaceutical firm’s directors including Dipti Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, former Andhra Bank director Anup Garg and some other unidentified persons.
The case filed by the ED alleged that former Andhra Bank director Anup Garg had falsified accounts to help Sterling Biotech raise loans much larger than it would have been able to otherwise.
