Parliament informed: 15 individuals, including Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, now formally FEOs. They collectively owe public sector banks over ₹58,000 crore. Breakdown of the staggering debt, the ₹19,187 crore recovery, and the status of the Sandesara brothers’ Supreme Court deal.
The government finally put a number on the absconders. A big one.
Union Minister Pankaj Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha that 15 people have been officially declared Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEOs) under the 2018 Act. This is as of October 31st, 2025.
The sheer scale of the debt is staggering. These FEOs—them, their companies, all of it—they together owe about a dozen public sector banks a whopping ₹58,082 crore. Let’s be real, that’s just a massive hole in the system. That includes the original principal amount (₹26,645 crore) and over ₹31,000 crore in accrued interest.
Who’s On the List?
Of those 15, nine are involved in major bank fraud against the PSBs. The big names are there, obviously.
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Vijay Mallya: Accused of the Kingfisher Airlines fraud, over ₹9,000 crore.
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Nirav Modi: Accused of the ₹13,000-crore PNB scam, one of the biggest frauds in Indian history.
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The Sandesara Family: Nitin, Chetan, Dipti Sandesara. Sterling Biotech case.
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Zylog Systems promoters: Sudharshan Venkatraman, Ramanujam Sesharathnam.
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Others: Pushpesh Kumar Baid and Hitesh Kumar Narendrabhai Patel, those too.
The Recovery Scorecard
So, how much is back? The government said ₹19,187 crore has been recovered from these offenders as of the October 31st date. It’s something. But it still leaves tens of thousands of crores outstanding.
And here’s the kicker, the news last week. The Sandesara brothers got a kind of relief from the Supreme Court. The criminal proceedings against them in the Sterling Biotech case were put on the table. The Court said, if they deposit ₹5,100 crore as a one-time settlement (OTS), the proceedings can be quashed. Public money comes back. And then the continuation of the criminal proceedings would not serve any useful purpose. That happened. It’s a pragmatic move, but it shows how messy these recovery battles are.
When asked if the government is drafting a policy to stop these offenders from fleeing in the first place—you know, watchlists, travel bans—Pankaj Chaudhary just said, flat out, no such policy is currently being drafted.
So, the Act is working, sort of. It identifies the fugitives. It attaches the assets. But preventing the escape? That’s not a priority right now. It’s an ongoing situation of trying to claw back public money one asset at a time.
End….
