The Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a money laundering case against Vijay Mallya and others in connection with the alleged default of loans worth Rs 900 crore from IDBI and SBI Bank. Both cases are related to loans given to the Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airline, which stopped flying in October 2012.
The more trouble for the Mallya is that a group of PSU banks on Tuesday moved Supreme Court (SC0) seeking direction that he is not allowed to leave India. The apex court has agreed to hear their plea including that of SBI, tomorrow according to the sources.
A debt recovery tribunal(DRT) bases in Bangaluru had said that Mallya can’t take the $75 million (Rs 500 crore) that Diageo paid him to walk away from United Spirits until a case that banks have filed over recovery of Rs 7,000 crore.
SBI chief welcomed the DRT ruling. “We are pleased with the judgement. We will continue to use all legal means to recover the dues,” Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya.
The service tax department on Monday asked the Bombay High Court to seize Mallya’s passport as it considered him a flight risk, challenging bail granted to him by a lower court. Mallya, a non-resident Indian based mostly in the UK, owes Rs 370 crore, according to the department. The Mallya-run UB Group’s spokeperson Sumanto Bhattacharya decline to make any comment.
The ED has received a copy of the CBI of corruption and criminal conspiracy registered in October last against Mr. Mallya as director of Kingfisher Airlines, Mr. Raghunathan and unknown IDBI officials. It has sought the loan-sanction papers from the bank of scrutiny.
The ED will soon summon Mr. Mallya and the other accused to record their statements. The CBI, in its own case, has alleged that the loan was sactioned and repay to the company in violation of banking rules. The agency has quizzed Mr. Mallya in this connection in December last year.
In fact, the firm had defaulted on repayment of loans from a consortium of 17 banks, of which IDBI was a part. The company owed about Rs. 7,800 crore to the State Bank of India-led consortium.
The ED,s move to investigate money-laundering charges comes in the backdrop of the Karnataka High Court order last week to issue notice to Mr. Mallya and nine others based on the petition filed by SBI and 12 other banks.
