ED TO FILE FRESH CHARGE SHEET AGAINST MALLYA
In more trouble for liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the ED is set to soon file a fresh charge sheet against him and his companies on charges of money laundering and allegedly cheating a consortium of nationalised banks to the tune of Rs 6,027 crore, officials said. With this charge sheet, official sources said the probe agency will ately seek from a court permission to “confiscate” Rs 9,000 crore worth assets of Mallya.
NEW DELHI: In more trouble for liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is set to soon file a fresh charge sheet against him and his companies on charges of money laundering and allegedly cheating a consortium of nationalised banks to the tune of ₹6,027 crore, officials said on Sunday.
With this charge sheet (also known as the prosecution complaint), official sources told PTI, the central probe agency will immediately seek from a court permission to “confiscate” more than ₹9,000 crore worth assets of the beleaguered businessman and his firms under the recently promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance.
The ED last year had filed its first charge sheet against Mallya, now in London, in the about ₹900 crore IDBI bank-Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) alleged bank loan fraud case. It has attached assets worth ₹9,890 crore in this case till now.
The forthcoming charge sheet will revolve around the complaint received from the State Bank of India (SBI) on behalf of the consortium of banks for causing loss of ₹6,027 crore to them by not keeping repayment commitments of his loan (by Mallya firms) taken during 2005-10, they said. The ED has based its investigation in this instance after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR and the charge sheet will be filed before a special court in Mumbai under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
It was alleged that SBI and its consortium banks had advanced various credit facilities to KFA Limited during the period between 2005 and 2010. During 2009-10, the company failed to meet its repayment commitments to the bank from whom it had availed credit facilities and the airlines did not keep its account with the consortium banks regular which became NPA (non performing asset), the CBI FIR had stated.
The consortium banks, therefore, recalled credit facilities and also invoked corporate guarantee of UBHL (united breweries holdings limited) and personal guarantee of Mallya, it had alleged.
It was alleged that there was a conspiracy among group companies promoter and unknown others to cheat the lenders, the CBI had said.
The ED, officials said, had found that a maze of shell or dummy firms were used to allegedly siphon off these funds and this is expected to be stated in the upcoming charge sheet.
The agency, empowered by the Union government to enact the new fugitive ordinance in the country, will seek an official declaration to categorise Mallya as a “fugitive” on the basis of the cognisance of this prosecution complaint (charge sheet).