Fresh trouble for Vijay Mallya as ED cracks whip in loan default case

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a case against Vijay Mallya under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the alleged default of over Rs 900 crore loan from IDBI bank.

The agency recently filed charges based on an FIR registered last year by CBI in the same case and will question him shortly.

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

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also launched a preliminary enquiry against the 'king of good times' under the anti-money laundering laws to ensure that he does not escape to friendly countries, just like former commissioner of Indian Premier League (IPL) Lalit Modi, whose deportation from the UK is long awaited after a series of red-corner notices.

With this, the enforcement sleuths were also in the process of short-listing Mallya's properties in India and overseas.

The Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) will also today pass orders on government-owned State Bank of India’s (SBI) application seeking lenders’ first right on the USD 75 million payout from Diageo Plc to Vijay Mallya under a recent “sweetheart deal”.

The DRT had reserved its order after hearing submissions made by both parties—bankers and Mallya—on 4 March.

SBI had filed three other applications, including one seeking Mallya’s arrest and impounding of his passport, as the bank approached the DRT after Mallya defaulted on loans.

The DRT had taken up on priority the application for securing the first right on the USD 75 million severance package. The DRT had said it would hear the other three applications on a later date.

SBI, which leads a consortium of 17 banks that lent money to the discontinued Kingfisher Airlines, had moved the DRT against Mallya in a bid to recover over Rs.7,000 crore from him.