Exactly a year after he was declared India’s first fugitive economic offender, a Special Court here has given the green signal to banks to dispose off the economic assets of absconding liquor baron Vijay Mallya to recover their dues, official sources said here on Wednesday.
The directions to the consortium of 15 banks led by the State Bank of India came on Tuesday to dispose off his economic assets like financial securities, shares in his companies which have been under attachment since 2016.
The lenders’ consortium has to recover over Rs.6,000 crore plus interest from Mallya, currently in the United Kingdom, after the ED informed the Special Court last year it had no objections to the same.
However, the Special Court has stayed its order till Jan. 18 to enable all the parties concerned to file their appeals before the Bombay High Court, said the sources.
Among the assets are Mallya’s shares in the United Breweries Holdings Ltd. – the value of which is not clear, which were attached after he was declared a ‘proclaimed offender’.
Later in Jan. 2019, he earned the dubious distinction of being declared the country’s first ‘fugitive economic offender’ under Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018.
The 15-banks consortium had earlier filed an application in the Special Court seeking release of his assets which could be disposed off to recover a part of the loans extended to him, and details will be available from order copy.
Mallya, 65, a former one-term Rajya Sabha Member, who had launched the high-profile Kingfisher Airlines, slipped out of the country in March 2016.
He is facing cases of money-laundering filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which has already attached his movable and fixed assets worth around Rs.10,000-crore so far, and some of his fixed assets have been sold, while others are pending disposal.
Mallya was arrested by the UK Police in April 2017 and in Dec. 2018, a UK Court ordered his extradition to India which he has contested and the matter is pending.-IANS News
