Court rejects Vijay Mallya's plea against ED in IDBI fraud case, issues non-bailable warrant

Mumbai: In fresh trouble for Vijay Mallya, a special court Monday issued a non-bailable "open dated" warrant against the liquor baron in a money laundering case involving alleged defrauding of IDBI Bank of Rs 950 crore.

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court also rejected the application moved by now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines challenging the claim by Enforcement Directorate that Rs 430 crore was siphoned off from the Rs 950 crore loan taken from IDBI Bank and used to acquire properties abroad.

"Non-bailable warrant(NBW) is issued," ordered special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court judge P R Bhavke. The arrest warrant comes within days of suspension of Mallya's diplomatic passport.

In its application moved in morning, the KFA had termed the ED's claim as "false and incorrect" that its owner Mallya had siphoned off Rs 430 crore of the IDBI loan and used this money to acquire property abroad.

The ED had sought NBW against Mallya in connection with the money laundering probe in the alleged Rs 950-crore IDBI Bank loan fraud case.

The ED also showed the court an envelope which it said contained details of money lying in Mallya's overseas accounts.

The 60-year-old industrialist, who is in UK, has skipped three summons issued by Enforcement Directorate. He had also sought time till May to depose before the officials.

Earlier in the day, the KFA prayed to the court that the court could await submission of the detailed explanation of the utilisation of the proceeds of the IDBI Bank loan with supporting documentary evidence before passing any order on the application of ED seeking NBW.

KFA said that collation of the detailed explanation of the utilisation of proceeds of the IDBI loan disbursed to KFA together with relevant supporting documents, including copies of swift messages giving details of foreign remittances, is at an advanced stage and will be furnished to the ED in the next few days.

"Suffice it to say that no funds disbursed to KFA by IDBI have been wrongly utilised or utilised for the purpose other than legitimate business purposes, expenses of KFA or have been diverted in any manner by Mallya for his personal benefit or gain", the KFA application said.

In an "open dated" NBW, the agency can execute it any time with no time frame unlike in dated NBW.

ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar told the court that former KFA CFO A Ragunath had told the agency during his questioning earlier that he could not recollect any details.

ED said that Raghunath had told them that KFA did not have lease agreements for 68 aircraft used by them.

Venegaonkar further told the court that Raghunath had told the agency that Mallya had been kept in the loop (about all transactions).

However, when the agency asked Raghunath to produce the "debit/credit transactions of over Rs 1 crore, he said the computer server crashed", Venegaonkar said.

In reply to the last summons on April 9, Mallya had informed the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case here that he will be unable to depose personally as scheduled citing the ongoing legal proceedings going in the Supreme Court over settlement of loans.

The agency had issued fresh summons in the first week of April to Mallya asking him to appear on April 9 after he sought two extensions from the earlier dates of March 18 and April 2 citing official reasons.

ED on Saturday had told the court that out of Rs 950 crore which Mallya's company had borrowed from IDBI Bank for using it in the Kingfisher Airlines, Rs 430 crore was diverted and spent on purchase of property abroad.