Nine major bank fraud accused among 15 fugitive economic offenders: govt.

Fifteen people have been declared wanted by various courts under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA) as of October 31, 2025, nine of whom are linked to large-scale financial frauds against public sector banks, the Finance Ministry informed the Lok Sabha on Monday (December 1, 2025).

Two fugitive economic offenders have opted for a one-time settlement. The cumulative principle amount as on the date when the loans associated with the 15 fugitives were declared non-performing assets was ₹26,645 crore. The interests accrued till October 31, 2025, amounted to ₹31,437 crore. While ₹19,187 crore was recovered, the settlement amount stood at ₹1,630 crore with ₹3,542 crore as discounts offered.

In a written reply to a query from member Murari Lal Meena, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the list of fugitive offenders included Nirav Modi; Vijay Mallya; Nitin Sandesara, Chetan Sandesara, and Dipti C. Sandesara of the Sterling Group; Hitesh Kumar; Narendrabhai Patel; Sudharshan Venkataraman and Ramanujam Sesharathinam of Zylog Systems Limited; and Pushpesh Kumar Baid.

Nitin and Chetan Sandesara have settled certain dues with Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, and State Bank of India.

About a week ago, the Supreme Court directed the quashing of all criminal proceedings against the Sandesara brothers in the Sterling Biotech bank fraud case, provided they deposit ₹5,100 crore as a “full and final payment” to the lender banks. “If the petitioners (Sandesara brothers) are ready to deposit the amount as settled in the one-time settlement (OTS), and public money comes back to the lender banks, the continuation of the criminal proceedings would not serve any useful purpose,” the Bench observed.

Responding to another query from member Shatrughan Prasad Sinha, the Ministry said that since June 2014, 120 people had been convicted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered 6,312 cases under the Act and filed 1,805 main prosecution complaints and 568 supplementary complaints as of October 31, 2025.

Following an amendment to the law in August 2019, the ED is required to submit closure reports before a Special Judge under the Act. Since then, the agency has filed closure reports in 93 cases where no offence of money laundering was established, including cases where the predicate offence had been quashed.

“Prior to this amendment, cases where no money-laundering offence was made out were closed with the approval of the regional Special Director of Enforcement. Accordingly, from the inception of the PMLA on July 1, 2005, up to July 31, 2019, a total of 1,185 cases were closed,” the Ministry stated.