Acting upon the Supreme Court judgment to immediately submit ₹830 cr and another ₹830 cr within eight weeks, Vadodara-based industrialists and fugitive brothers Nitin and Chetan Sandesara paid the impending amount as mandated.

The Sandesara brothers established the Sterling Biotech company in the city’s Padra taluka in 1985.

After registering its office in Mumbai, they set up various businesses in different sectors, including construction, trading, business services, manufacturing, gas, financial intermediation, healthcare, transportation, storage, communication, mining, and others, totalling up to 34 companies.

After starting these businesses, they took hefty loans, totalling around ₹17,000 cr from various banks.

As they failed to repay the loans on time, nationalised and private banks started declaring them defaulters from 2006 onwards.

The matter eventually reached the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), and a complaint was filed against them, after which the Sandesara brothers fled out of India.

They continued to operate their companies from outside, and Sterling Biotech in Padra taluka is operational even today.

Case reaches Supreme Court

In the meantime, an applicant named Hemant Hathi filed a case against the CBI in the Supreme Court in 2020 on behalf of Sterling.

The verdict issued this month by the Apex Court ordered Sterling to pay the remaining sum.

A bench of two Supreme Court Judges, Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Deepankar Datta, mentioned while stating the verdict that the senior advocate appearing for the petitioners has issued that around $50m (approximately ₹415 cr) have been transferred to the bank recovery account. They added that the remaining $50m will be transferred to the bank recovery account within the next three days.

The relief granted by the Supreme Court permits the Sandesara brothers to enter India.

Sterling Biotech’s registered office space was situated in Nariman Point’s Atlanta in Mumbai. Later, they opened offices and companies in various cities, including Vadodara, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Jambusar, Dahej, and Bharuch, among others.