By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Dec 7:
Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s property worth Rs 14 crore located in France was seized under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA) by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday.
The action was undertaken by French authorities “on the request of the Enforcement Directorate”. The property is located at 32 Avenue FOCH in France and the value of the seized asset is Euro 1.6 million that is worth about Rs 14 crore, the ED said in a statement.
Investigations conducted under the PMLA revealed that a large amount was remitted abroad from the bank account of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. (KAL) for creation of the assets.
Mallya, who is fighting his extradition to India, faces fraud and money laundering charges in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore resulting from the collapse of his defunct company KAL. He is in the UK since March 2016 and is on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.
Mallya’s downfall began after his Kingfisher Airlines was grounded in 2012. It anyway did not make any profit during eight years in operation. The company’s losses touched Rs 2,142 crore for its fiscal fourth quarter ending in March 2013, compared with a net loss of Rs 1,150 crore a year earlier. The accumulated losses as of March 2013 stood at a whopping Rs 16,023 crore.
The FIR was lodged against KAL, Mallya and others by CBI on 25 January 2016. Till now properties worth Rs 11,231.70 crore (market value at time of attachment) have been attached and a prosecution complaint has been lodged against Mallya, United Breweries Holdings Limited, bank officials and others.
India had submitted an extradition request to the United Kingdom in February 2017. The request for extradition of Mallya was sent to UK and Westminster’s court ruled his extradition on charges of money laundering on 10 December 2018. The court observed that there was a clear dispersal and misapplication of loan funds and it was prima facie found that Mallya was involved in a conspiracy to launder money. Appeals by Mallya to UK High court and later Supreme Court were rejected.
He was declared fugitive economic offender by the Special court (FEO Act) on 05 January 2019. On 05 October 2020, the Union External Affairs Ministry said that his extradition from the United Kingdom is held up due to “a confidential legal issue” and there is no timeline available for the process.
Mallya has repeatedly denied the charges against him and offered to pay back 100% of the amount borrowed by Kingfisher Airlines, but neither the banks nor the Enforcement Directorate has been willing to accept the offer. He also claimed that the allegations against him were related to borrowing only Rs 900 crore.
Mallya owns money to nearly 17 banks in India. They include: SBI-Rs 1600 crore, PNB-Rs 800 crore, IDBI Bank-Rs 800 crore, Bank of India-Rs 650 crore, Bank of Baroda-Rs 550 crore, United Bank of India-Rs 430 crore, Central Bank -Rs 410 crore, UCO Bank-Rs 320 crore, Corporation Bank -Rs 310 crore, State Bank of Mysore-Rs 150 crore, Indian Overseas Bank-Rs 140 crore, Federal Bank -Rs 90 crore, Punjab and Sind Bank-Rs 60 crore, Axis Bank -Rs 50 crore and other banks-Rs 603 crore.
