Vijay Mallya declared fugitive economic offender by court; now govt can seize his assets

This is Mallya’s second setback in the last one month. In December, a UK court had allowed his extradition to India to face trial for fraud and money laundering.

The central agency, which investigates financial crimes, had initiated the proceedings against Mallya after two separate offences were registered against him in connection with huge loans taken for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, from a consortium of 12 banks led by the State Bank of India.

It had moved the special PMLA court invoking provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, seeking to declare Mallya a fugitive economic offender.

The special PMLA court and the Bombay High Court had dismissed Mallya’s pleas that “he was not a fugitive economic offender” and not involved in the scheduled offence of money laundering. Mallya had then approached the Supreme Court but it only asked the Centre to respond to Mallya’s petition against the move and did not stay the proceedings.

The businessman is facing extradition from the United Kingdom to India to face charges of financial irregularities running into thousands of crores. Mallya fled India in March 2016 even as a debt court in Bengaluru was set to act against him for defaulting on loans issued by several banks led by the state-owned State Bank of India.

Besides the extradition case, Vijaya  Mallya is also facing recovery action against his assets in the UK brought by 13 Indian banks and another mortgage recovery action by the UBS Bank against his house in central London. by agency.