ED issues fresh summons to Vijay Mallya in loan default case, asks him to appear on April 2

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday issued fresh summons to liquor baron Vijay Mallya to appear on April 2 in a money laundering probe related to IDBI loan fraud case.

Mallya, who is in the United Kingdom,  yesterday made it clear that he will not appear today  before the ED and instead sought time till April to do so.

ED had earlier issued summons to Mallya for "personal appearance" before it in Mumbai on March 18 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

In a related development, Government has made it clear that banks will recover every penny of loan of over Rs 9,000 crore given to his group firms.

Mallya, promoter of long-grounded Kingfisher Airlines, had left India on March 2 and headed for UK, days before the Supreme Court heard a plea of clutch of state-owned banks seeking recovery of over Rs 9,000 crore from his group firms.

The ED had recently registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on a CBI FIR registered last year. The agency is also investigating the overall financial structure of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines and will look into any payment of kickbacks to secure loan.

The CBI had booked Mallya, the Chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, its Directors, former Chief Financial Officer of the airlines A Raghunathan and unknown officials of IDBI Bank in its FIR alleging that the loan was sanctioned in violation of norms regarding credit limits.

Furthermore, the auction of Kingfisher House, once the headquarters of Mallya's defunct airline, proved to be a flop show yesterday with no bids coming in, presumably due to litigation fears and a high reserve price of Rs 150 crore.

The auction of the property, with a built-up area of over 17,000 sq ft in Vile Parle area near domestic airport here, started at 1130 hrs and ended in about an hour with no success.

With PTI Inputs