Plea in SC for restraining Vijay Mallya from leaving India

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear tomorrow a plea filed by a consortium of 17 PSU banks seeking a direction that industrialist Vijay Mallya be restrained from leaving India.

"List it for hearing tomorrow," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice U U Lalit said, when Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for PSU banks, mentioned the matter for urgent hearing.

Rohatgi said that the plea has been moved by 17 banks, including State Bank of India, against Mallya whose various firms have taken loan from them. He also said that the dues run into thousands of crores.

Beleaguered head of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallya suffered a double blow on Monday.  First, the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) barred him from accessing Diageo’s $75-million (Rs 515 crore) severance package till the loan default case with State Bank of India is settled. 

Second, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a case of money laundering against him for defaulting on a Rs 900 crore loan taken from IDBI. In its bid to recover over Rs 7,000-crore loan from Mallya, a consortium of 17 lenders led by SBI last week moved four applications before the DRT seeking Mallya’s arrest, impounding of his passport, lenders’ first right on Diageo’s $75-million payout package and getting full disclosure of his assets in the country and



abroad.

At a jam-packed DRT court hall in Bengaluru, Judge C R Benakanahalli said: “Defendant number 3 (Mallya), temporarily shall not draw amount mentioned in the present IA (interlocutory application) till disposal of the Original Application (OA), as sought by applicants banks in the present IA.

The judge added: “Diageo company/defendant number 7 and the United Spirits, company shall not temporarily disburse the amount to defendant no 3/his nominee/his assignee or agents etc, temporarily till disposal of the OA. Till disposal of present OA, amount mentioned in the IA as sought by the applicants banks stands attached.” The next hearing will be on March 28.

A case was registered by the ED’s Mumbai zonal wing based on an FIR by the CBI. “The ED initiates money laundering probe in Kingfisher case on the basis of FIR filed by CBI on the basis of IDBI Bank complaint in loan case,” the agency tweeted.

Sources said the ED is likely to summon Mallya soon for questioning. The ED would look into the overall financial structure of Kingfisher Airlines and the documents it has collected from authorities concerned and IDBI.

The CBI registered the case after a preliminary enquiry last year into the allegations of IDBI Bank giving loan to the crisis-ridden Kingfisher Airlines by overlooking negative credit ratings and net worth.