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Tag: Vijay Mallya

  • Supreme Court to pronounce order on July 11 in contempt case against Vijay Mallya

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: In a contempt case against fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya who was found guilty of contempt of court in 2017 for withholding information from the court, the Supreme Court will pronounce its order on July 11.

    A bench of Justices UU Lalit, Ravindra S Bhat and PS Narasimha will pronounce the order on Monday. The bench had reserved the order on March 10 in the case.

    The apex court, during the hearing, had noted that Mallya behaves like “a free person” in the United Kingdom and no information was forthcoming about the proceedings concerning Mallya there.

    Amicus curiae, senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, assisting the bench in the case had submitted that Mallya was held guilty on two counts – for not disclosing assets and violating expressive orders of restraint passed by the Karnataka High Court.

    Last year, the top court while saying that it has waited “long enough” and cannot “wait longer now” for Mallya to get extradited from the United Kingdom to India, decided to go ahead with the hearing on the quantum of punishment in the contempt case against him.

    The top court had held Mallya guilty of contempt of court for transferring USD 40 million to his children in violation of the court’s order and sought his presence before it on various occasions.

    On February 10, the Supreme Court granted the last opportunity of two weeks for Mallya to personally present or through counsel in the contempt case against him and if he fails to do so the court will take the matter to the logical conclusion.

    Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Ministry of External Affairs clarified that it’s not the Government of India’s stand that something confidential is going on in the case in the United Kingdom but it is what the government has been informed by the UK that there is something going on which can’t be shared.

    Earlier, Mehta had furnished a document of Deputy Secretary (Extradition) Ministry of External Affairs, to which the bench had said the proceedings for extradition of Mallya to India from the United Kingdom has attained finality but certain “confidential proceedings” are pending in the UK, details of which are not known.

    Centre had also said that Mallya has already exhausted all his avenues of appeal in the UK.

    Previously the Centre had informed the top court that legal complexities in the United Kingdom are preventing the extradition of fugitive Mallya, but the government of India is making all efforts and doing its best to extradite him.

    The apex court had dismissed a plea filed by Mallya seeking a review of its May 2017 order holding him guilty of contempt.

    Mallya is accused of a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines and is presently in the United Kingdom.

    The Supreme Court had issued its May 9, 2017, order on a plea by a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), claiming he had allegedly transferred USD 40 million received from British firm Diageo to his children in “flagrant violation” of various judicial orders.

    Earlier, the apex court had asked Mallya about the “truthfulness” of his disclosure of assets and the transfer of money to his children.

    At that time, the top court was dealing with pleas of lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit USD 40 million received from offshore firm Diageo to the banks respectively.

    The banks had then accused Mallya of concealing the facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in flagrant violation of the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court. 

  • Rs 19,111 cr assets attached out of total fraud by Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi & Mehul Choksi: Centre tells SC

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI; The ‘timely attachment’ of proceeds of crime has led to the attachment of assets worth over Rs 19,000 crore out of the “total fraud” of over Rs 22,500 crore by three fugitive offenders Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi, the Centre has told the Supreme Court.

    These figures were mentioned in the note submitted by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in the apex court, which is hearing arguments on a batch of petitions concerning the interpretation of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

    While advancing his submissions in the matter on Thursday, Mehta, who is appearing for the Centre, told a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar that he had yesterday referred to the attachment of assets worth over Rs 18,000 crore of these three persons.

    “It is submitted that timely attachment of proceeds of crime has led to attachment of assets worth of Rs 19,111.20 crore out of total fraud of Rs 22,585.83 crore by three fugitive offenders namely Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi,” Mehta has said in his note filed before the bench, which also comprised Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar.

    It said that out of the attached proceeds of crime from these three individuals, assets of Rs 15,113.91 crore have already been returned to the public sector banks by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the relevant provision of the PMLA through the order of the court.

    The note further said that assets worth Rs 335.06 crore have been confiscated to the Government of India i.e.66.91 per cent of a total loss to the banks in these 3 cases has been returned back to them by the ED.

    It is pertinent to mention here that SBI has already recovered cash of Rs 7,975.27 crore by selling a part of assets returned to it by the ED.

    “The process of liquidation of other restituted assets by the banks is continuing,” Mehta has said in his note.

    The arguments in the matter would continue next week. Some of these petitions have challenged the validity of certain provisions of the PMLA.

  • Contempt matter involving Vijay Mallya to be dealt with finally on January 18: SC

    Observing that the apex court has waited 'sufficiently long', a bench headed by Justice U U Lalit said, 'We can't be waiting any longer now'.

  • Banks consortium gets over Rs 792 crore in Vijay Mallya loan default case: ED

    Last month too, the banks consortium had realised more than Rs 7,181 crore in the Mallya case after a similar sale of attached shares.

  • Mallya, Nirav Modi & Mehul Choksi all coming back to face law: Nirmala Sitharaman

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that fugitive businessmen Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi are “coming back” to India to face the law.

    The government is persuing extradition of Mallya and Modi from the UK while Choksi is believed to be in Antigua and Barbuda.

    “Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi all of them are coming back to face the law of this land. One after other everybody is coming back to this country to face the law of this country,” Sitharaman said while responding to a discussion on Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in Rajya Sabha.

    Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the UK since March 2016.

    He is on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

    Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, are accused in a scam involving fake guarantees in the name of state-run PNB to secure overseas loans.

    Both fled India in 2018, before the CBI began probe.

    Last month, Nirav Modi, the diamond merchant wanted on charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, had lost his legal battle against extradition as a UK judge ruled that he does have a case to answer before the Indian courts.

    Nirav Modi is the subject of two sets of criminal proceedings, with CBI case relating to a large-scale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud.

    The Enforcement Directorate recently attached assets worth over Rs 14 crore belonging to the Gitanjali Group and its promoter and jeweller Mehul Choksi.

    Choksi, who has fled India is stated by probe agencies to be based in Antigua and Barbuda.

  • Vijay Mallya has applied for ‘another route’ to stay in the UK, says lawyer

    By PTI
    LONDON: Vijay Mallya has applied to Home Secretary Priti Patel for “another route” to be able to stay in the UK, the liquor tycoon’s barrister representing him in bankruptcy proceedings in the High Court in London confirmed during a remote hearing on Friday.

    The 65-year-old businessman, whose legal challenge to the Indian government’s extradition request was turned down at the Supreme Court level in the UK last year, remains in Britain on bail until Patel signs off on the order for him to be extradited to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering related to the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

    The UK Home Office has so far only confirmed on background that a confidential legal process remains ongoing before the extradition order can be executed.

    This had raised widespread speculation that Mallya had sought asylum in the UK, details of which are neither confirmed nor denied by the Home Office in Britain while an application is pending.

    “The extradition was upheld but he [Mallya] is still here because as you know there is another route for him to apply to the Secretary of State [Patel] for status,” said Mallya’s barrister Philip Marshall, when specifically asked by Deputy Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Nigel Barnett about the status of the extradition proceedings.

    It is likely that the reference is to an asylum route which, according to legal experts, would depend upon whether Mallya applied for asylum prior to the extradition request or after.

    “He would need to argue much stronger grounds. There are specific rules that detail when asylum is a bar to extradition, it is clear that claiming asylum after all appeals have been exhausted is unlikely to be considered a valid claim to asylum protection,” explains Toby Cadman, co-founder of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers and a UK-based extradition specialist.

    The court on Friday also heard how Mallya, who submitted written evidence for the hearing, was in a “constrained” position as a close relative had passed away as a result of COVID-19.

    The remote hearing in the commercial division of the High Court in London was to establish whether the court can sanction substantial sums towards Mallya’s living expenses and legal fees from the sale of a French luxury property Le Grand Jardin last year.

    The money is held in the UK’s Court Funds Office (CFO) as part of bankruptcy proceedings brought by a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) in pursuit of unpaid loans.

    Mallya’s legal team argues that he should be sanctioned the required funds to meet mounting legal costs in India and the UK, which includes costs to be paid to the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which argued the extradition proceedings on behalf of the Indian authorities.

    The lawyers for the banks have challenged this as it would dissipate the funds owed to his creditors towards speculative and “unreasonable” costs while other sources of funds remain available to the businessman.

    The banks’ barrister, Tony Beswetherick, argued that Mallya’s latest written evidence shows that he “does have other assets that he can utilise to meet the very significant costs he is seeking to have validated and paid (including two yachts that he has put into storage in Southampton, debts owed to him by family trusts, and cars in storage in France)”.

    However, Mallya’s lawyers pointed to a worldwide freezing order in place that constrains access to his assets and the conclusion in October last year of his consultancy arrangement for a Formula One team meant he had no other sources of income at his disposal.

    They claimed the conduct of the banks was “highly oppressive” and an attempt to “starve Dr Mallya of the funds”.

    At the end of a half-day hearing, the judge reserved his judgment on the issue of access to court-held funds and is expected to hand down his ruling in the coming weeks.

    The hearing forms part of a series as both sides make arguments for and against a bankruptcy order against Mallya in the UK.

  • Making all efforts to extradite fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya: Centre to Supreme Court

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it is making all efforts to extradite fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines from United Kingdom, but the process is being delayed to some legal issues involved in the matter.

    A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Ashok Bhushan posted the matter for further hearing on March 15, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought some time to file report on the status of extradition of Mallya.

    At the outset, Mehta shared a letter of the Ministry of External Affairs’ official Devesh Uttam written to him on the status of extradition of Mallya from the United Kingdom. The solicitor general stated that Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has raised the issue of extradition with the UK government and the Centre is taking all serious efforts to extradite Mallya.

    ALSO READ| CIC asks CBI to cite rules under which LOCs were issued on Vijay Mallya

    He said that government is trying its best but status remains the same and from political executive level to administrative level the matter is being looked into repeatedly. The bench took the letter on record. Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the UK since March 2016.

    He is on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

    The letter submitted by the law officer stated that, “The Ministry of External Affairs has been informed by the UK government that there is a further legal issue that needs resolving before Mallya can be extradited.”

    “Under United Kingdom law, extradition cannot take place until it is resolved. As it is judicial in nature, the issue is confidential and you will understand that Her Majesty’s government cannot provide any more details. We also cannot estimate how long this issue will take to resolve. Her Majesty’s government fully understands the importance of this case to the government of India. I can reassure that Her Majesty’s government is seeking to deal with the issue as quickly as possible,” it added.

    The letter further stated, “The government of India has been making consistent efforts for early extradition of Vijay Mallya. In November 2020, Foreign secretary Harshvardhan Shringla raised this issue with Priti Patel, UK Home Secretary who informed that UK’s legal complexities were preventing the quick extradition of Vijay Mallya.”

    “In December 2020, the external affairs minister Dr. S Jaishankar raised the issue with the UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab and most recently in January 2021, the Home Secretary of India raised it with the UK Permanent Under Secretary of Home. UK’s response remains the same,” it said.

    On November 2, last year, the top court had asked the Centre to file status report in six weeks on the confidential legal proceedings pending in the UK on extradition of Mallya to India. The Centre had on October 5 told the apex court that Mallya cannot be extradited to India until a separate “secret” legal process in the UK, which is “judicial and confidential in nature is resolved”.

    The top court had also refused to accept the plea of advocate E C Agarwala, appearing for Mallya in the apex court, seeking discharge from the case. The Centre had in October, last year said it is not aware of the secret on-going proceedings against Mallya in the UK as the government of India is not party to the process.

    On August 31, last year the top court had directed Mallya to appear before it on October 5, 2020, while dismissing his plea seeking review of the 2017 verdict which held him guilty of contempt for transferring USD 40 million to his children in violations of court orders.

    When the top court had asked Mehta about the time-frame for conclusion of proceeding pending in the UK, he had said they have no information about it from the London High Commission.

    The Ministry of Home Affairs, in its affidavit filed earlier in the contempt case in which Mallya has been held guilty, said that the pending legal issue in the UK is “outside and apart from the extradition process” and is “confidential and cannot be disclosed”.

    The top court had in October, 2020 asked Mallya’s lawyer to apprise the apex court by November 2, last year what kind of “secret” proceedings are going on to extradite him.

    The Centre had given details of the extradition proceedings against Mallya starting from February 9, 2017 till dismissal of his appeal against extradition in UK on May 14, last year and said that the fugitive businessman has thus exhausted all avenues of appeal in the United Kingdom.

    The Centre had said that following the refusal of leave to appeal, Mallya’s surrender to India should, in principle, have been completed within 28 days but “the UK home office intimated that there is a further legal issue which needs to be resolved before Vijay Mallya’s extradition may take place”.

  • Central Information Commission asks CBI to cite rules under which LOCs were issued on Vijay Mallya

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission has directed the CBI to cite rules under which two different look out circulars were issued against Vijay Mallya, accused in loan default of Rs 9,000 crore, in October and November 2015.

    The CBI had issued a fresh LOC against Mallya in the last week of November, 2015 asking airport authorities across the country to “inform” it about Mallya’s movements, thus replacing its previous circular which had sought detention of the businessman if he attempted to leave the country, sources had said.

    Mallya left the country in March 2016 for the United Kingdom where he is legally contesting the extradition ordered by the British Government.

    Acting on a petition by Pune-based RTI activist Vihar Durve, who was denied information by the CBI, the panel directed the central agency to cite him regulations under which look out circulars (LOCs) were issued in October and November, 2015.

    The CBI had cited Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act to deny information to Durve. The section exempts from disclosure of information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders.

    The CBI had issued the first LOC against Mallya on October 12, 2015, when he was already abroad, calling for his detention if he intends to leave the country or arrive here from abroad.

    Upon his return, the agency was asked by the Bureau of Immigration if Mallya should be detained as sought in the LOC, to which the CBI said there was no need to arrest or detain him as he was a sitting MP and there was no warrant against him, according to sources.

    They said the agency only wanted information on his movements. Besides, the probe was in an initial stage and the CBI was collecting documents from the IDBI in the Rs 900 crore loan default case. Sources said that another case was filed against him later.

    Durve sought from the agency rules under which both the look out circulars were issued. He also had sought other details such as a copy of these circulars, all of which were denied by the CBI. In her order, Information Commissioner Saroj Punhani directed the agency to provide regulations under which both the LoCs were issued by the agency.

    She also directed it to provide a revised reply giving cogent reasons as to how Section 8(1)(h) is applicable in the case.

  • Tax office cautions against buying Vijay Mallya’s shares

    The Income Tax Department, Karnataka & Goa has cautioned the public against the purchase of shares held by beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya in United Racing and Bloodstock Breeders Ltd. (URBBL), which have been put up for e-auction on October 30 by the Debt Recovery Tribunal-II, Karnataka.

    “A sale proclamation has been published by the Debt Recovery Tribunal-II, Karnataka whereby 41,52272 shares held by Dr Vijay Mallya in United Racing and Bloodstock Breeders Ltd. (URBBL) have been put up for e-auction on October 30. This is to bring to the notice of the public that Income-tax Department has already created charges against the said shares on account of outstanding demand. Therefore, such sale/transfer of these shares will be void in terms of Section 281 of the Income-tax Act. Any persons purchasing such shares will be doing so at their own risk,” stated the  official statement.

  • Editorial :- Vijay Mallya becomes football for the Congress and the BJP.

    Vijay Mallya’s mili-Bhagat was from the BJP or from the Congress? Many news stories have been published in this regard today:

    >> Kingfisher is used to travel freely by  Rahul, Havala connection to company: BJP
    >> Congress leader and former PM helped Vijay Mallya: Piyush Goyal
    >> Bank against the fugitive Vijay Mallya reached the UK court.
    >> Jaitley explained Mallya’s lies.
    >> Mallya reverses his statement, said-no official meeting with Finance Minister Jaitley
    >> And there are also connections from Rahul Gandhi’s hawala company.

    The allegations made by Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders in the context of Jaitley and Vijay Mallya  BJP today prove that  Vijay Mallya is a Satyarthi Harishchandra for all of them.
    In response, the BJP and Jaitley also had to come to the ground.
    That is why financial criminal Vijay Mallya has said, “Both the big parties have made him political football and later I have been made a goat”.

    While giving an interview in India News on July 07, 2013, the former Raw Officer had disclosed that through Hafiz Saeed the Congress is sending its black money abroad through hawala.
    : The BJP on Thursday accused Congress President Rahul Gandhi of making big allegations about Black money and Vijay Mallya. The BJP spokesperson said that Rahul Gandhi has a share in the Young India Company, Rahul has misappropriated 5 thousand crore. The BJP accused the Gandhi family of helping Vijay Mallya and taking advantage of them.

    The concerned said that the Government of Manmohan Singh helped Mallya to forgive Malya’s loan during her government.

    The concerned Patra said that Rahul Gandhi has gone on the back foot at Kingfisher Airlines. Sometimes it seems that the ownership of the airlines was not owned by Mallya, but was in proxy by the Gandhi family. The benefits of Gandhi family Kingfisher Airlines are in the public domain through business class upgradation, free tickets etc. Patra told that there were many correspondence between RBI and SBI, which has revealed that Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh had sidelined the rules about Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines.