Fugitive economic offenders in the country owe more than ₹58,082 crore to public sector banks. This amount has to be paid by October 31, 2025. This includes ₹26,645 crore principal and ₹31,437 crore interest. The government gave this information in the Lok Sabha. It was also told that till now 15 people have been declared Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO). These include big names like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. Nine people are directly linked to major financial scams involving public sector banks.
Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines has the highest outstanding loan. According to State Bank of India (SBI), Mallya owes principal amount of ₹6,848.28 crore. After adding interest, this amount has increased to ₹11,960.05 crore. Apart from this, money of many other government banks is also stuck with Mallya.
Nirav Modi’s accounts
Meanwhile, Nirav Modi has principal outstanding of over ₹7,800 crore through his different companies like Firestar and Diamond Group. Punjab National Bank (PNB) alone has outstanding of ₹6,799.18 crore under “non-borrowing fraud”. Nirav Modi’s money is also stuck in SBI, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Indian Bank and many other banks.
Companies linked to the Sandesara family, such as Sterling Biotech, Sterling SEZ, Sterling Global Oil Resources and others, also have significant debt to several banks. This includes ₹1,392.78 crore of Bank of India and ₹982.50 crore of SBI. So far, banks have recovered a total of ₹19,187 crore (33%) from these fugitive criminals. This means that out of the total outstanding of ₹58,082 crore, approximately ₹38,895 crore is still not recovered.
Who chose the one-time settlement option?
The government also said that so far only two fugitive criminals have chosen the One-Time Settlement (OTS) option. Of these, Nitin and Chetan Sandesara have signed an agreement with Indian Bank and Sterling Global Oil Resources Private Limited has signed an agreement with SBI. When asked whether any policy was being made to prevent economic offenders from leaving the country, the government said that no such proposal was being considered at present.
This information has come at a time when the country is struggling with cases of economic fraud. Big names are coming forward. The public wants to know what action the government is taking against such criminals and how the money will be recovered. This huge amount of ₹58,082 crore is a big blow to those banks which were formed with the tax money of the common man.
