NEW DELHI

 The Enforcement Directorate today said it has attached properties worth Rs 4,700 crore in a Rs 5,000-crore bank fraud case involving Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company Sterling Biotech.

According to sources, the agency has attached properties of the Sterling Biotech in Mumbai and Ahmedabad under the sections of Prevention of Money laundering Act, (PMLA), 2002.

The ED action comes after the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) FIR.

The attached assets include immovable properties of about 4,000 acres, plant machinery, around 200 bank accounts of various companies and accounts of promoters, shares worth ₹6.67 crore and various high-end luxury cars.

The CBI has booked Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, Anup Prakash Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud.

Sterling Biotech had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium of banks led by Andhra Bank which had turned into non-performing assets. Total pending dues of the group companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016, said the CBI FIR.

Till date, the banks have declared as fraud the various outstanding loan accounts in respect of the Sterling Group, including Sterling Biotech, Sterling Port Limited, PMT Machines Limited, Sterling SEZ and Infrastructure Ltd and Sterling Oil Resources Limited.

The ED said that during the probe, it found that “certain entries” in a diary seized by the Income Tax Department in 2011 showed cash payments amounting to Rs 1.52 crore made to one “Garg, Director, Andhra Bank” between 2008 and 2009 by the Sandesara brothers.

On January 13, the ED arrested Garg. The agency also arrested a Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan in connection with the case in November 2017.