15 FEOs owe ₹58,000 crore to public banks: Centre informs Parliament

THe Centre informed the Parliament on mon that 15 runaway economical offenders (FEOs), including the Sandesara brothers, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, unitedly owe ₹58,082 crore to nigh a dozen public sector banks, majority of which is the interest component of the loans they took.In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Union Minister of State for home Pankaj Chaudhary gave statistics of dues and settlement so far in cases pertaining to the FEO Act. Chaudhary said that, as of October 31 this year, 15 people have been declared as FEOs under the 2018 Act, out of which nine are related to large-scale financial frauds committed against public sector banks.The list includes names like the Sandesaras brothers, and Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, both based in London.Brought in by the government in 2018 to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, the FEO Act empowers authorities to confiscate and attach proceeds of crimes and assets when the amount involved in the case is higher than ₹100 crore. Such attachment is not linked to conviction.According to the data shared by Chaudhary, the 15 FEOs collectively owe ₹26,645 crore as principal loan amount to the banks, while the interest component is ₹31,437 crore. The total amount comes to ₹58,082 crore, which these 15 people owe to 12 state-owned banks, including Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India, UCO Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank and Indian Bank.About the Sandesaras, the government said the brothers –– Nitin and Chetan –– and their companies owed a total of ₹18,694.32 crore to public sector banks, out of which ₹7,875.40 crore was the principal amount and ₹10,818.92 was the interest accrued on it. The data suggests that the public sector banks have already recovered ₹3,156.17 crore from the Sandesaras. Chaudhary also said the two offenders have negotiated one-time settlement (OTS).Last week, the Supreme Court gave relief to Sandesaras by agreeing to quash all criminal proceedings against them after they informed the court that they would deposit an additional ₹5,100 crore to meet the demand of lender banks.Against a total OTS negotiated by Sandesaras with the banks of ₹6,761 crore, the brothers have already deposited ₹3,507 crore under various heads, leaving dues of about ₹3,253 crore. Parallel insolvency proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) have resulted in ₹1,192 crore in recovery for banks.