The development comes in connection with a money laundering case related to bank fraud. The ED informed on Friday that the case pertains to a Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company, Sterling Biotech group, and its absconding promoters — brothers Nitin Sandesara and Chetan Sandesara.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday attached properties of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s son-in-law, actors Dino Moria and Sanjay Khan, and DJ Aqeel. The development comes in connection with a money laundering case related to bank fraud, news agency PTI reported. The assets of the four people, worth ₹8.79 crore in total, have been seized under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED said.
The ED informed on Friday that the case pertains to a Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company, Sterling Biotech Group, and its absconding promoters — brothers Nitin Sandesara and Chetan Sandesara.
The money laundering case allegedly involves a sum of ₹14,500 crore in bank-loan frauds. According to the ED, the amount is even greater than the fraud committed by fugitive businessman Nirav Modi, who was the chief beneficiary of the ₹11,400 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.
The ED said that four separate preliminary orders have been issued under the PMLA to attach properties of the four aforementioned persons. The property is valued at ₹8.79 crore. Of this, the value of attachment of assets for Sanjay Khan is ₹3 crore, and for Dino Morea, it is ₹1.4 crore. For Aqeel Abdulkhalil Bachooali — popularly known as DJ Aqeel — it is ₹1.98 crore, and for Irfan Ahmed Siddiqui, who is late Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s son-in-law, it is ₹2.41 crore.
According to the agency, the assets seized consist of three vehicles, several bank accounts, shares, and mutual funds.
It is said that the Sandesara brothers “diverted” proceedings of the bank loan fraud to these four people. Earlier, the central investigating agency had questioned Siddiqui, Morea, and Aqeel in the case. The ED also recorded the statement of Sandesara family employee Sunil Yadav, who said that Siddiqui was in possession of a house in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar, which allegedly belonged to Chetan Sandesara.
The agency then said that it had enough evidence to claim that Dino Morea and Aqeel were illegally paid by the Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company, back in 2011-12, when they attended a family function organised by the Sandesara brothers.
Meanwhile, Nitin Sandesara, Chetan Sandesara, Chetan’s wife Dipti Sandesara, and Hitesh Patel have been declared fugitive economic offenders by a special court.
