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India’s Supreme Court has ruled that criminal charges against billionaire brothers Nitin and Chetan Sandesara, accused of defaulting on bank loans, will be dropped if they pay $570 million by December 17 – about a third of their dues in a $1.6 billion fraud case.
However, others have raised concerns that such agreements could set a precedent for other economic offenders to escape without paying their dues.
The Sandesara brothers, who fled India with Albanian passports in 2017, have denied allegations of defrauding banks of about $1.6 billion, Reuters reported, citing a report published by the top court.
Their lawyer Mukul Rohatgi said the agreement meant “getting rid of all proceedings” rather than admitting wrongdoing, and he asked the court to quash all cases against the brothers.
The billionaire brothers, who own Nigeria’s Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production, are among the 14 designated fugitive economic offenders, along with Kingfisher Airlines founder Vijay Mallya and diamantaire Nirav Modi.
Debopriyo Maulik, a Supreme Court lawyer in independent practice, reportedly said such a decision would leave lenders struggling to recover their dues to businesses.
“This is similar to the approach adopted in foreign countries where fines are an alternative to facing trial,” Maulik told Reuters.