Enforcement Directorate moves Mumbai court to get Vijay Mallya declared ‘fugitive offender’
The agency also sought the court’s permission to immediately confiscate the businessman’s assets worth Rs 12,500 crore.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday moved a Mumbai court against businessman Vijay Mallya, seeking to declare him a “fugitive offender” under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, PTI reported. The agency also sought the court’s permission to immediately confiscate about Rs 12,500 crore worth of assets – both movable and immovable – belonging to Mallya and his companies.
The agency filed its second chargesheet against Mallya and two of his firms on Monday for allegedly laundering money. The now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines diverted Rs 3,547 crore of the Rs 9,990-crore loan it took from a consortium of 17 banks to the Force India Formula 1 Team – a motorsport firm based in the United Kingdom – and to a firm that owned Indian Premier League team Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Enforcement Directorate alleged.
The agency also accused Mallya of not fully disclosing his assets while executing a personal guarantee agreement with the lenders when Kingfisher Airlines’ loans were restructured in December 2010. Mallya had claimed at the time that he had assets worth Rs 1,395 crore, whereas according to its estimates his total assets were Rs 3,164.65 crore, the Enforcement Directorate said.
The chargesheet also accused United Breweries Holding of helping the businessman launder money by not honouring a corporate guarantee that the company gave to the banks, which was to be invoked in case of a loan default by Kingfisher Airlines.
The agency filed its first chargesheet against Mallya in June 2017 in the Rs 900-crore IDBI Bank-Kingfisher Airlines loan-default case.