ED resisted effort to settle loans: Mallya in reply to UK court
MUMBAI: United Breweries Holdings Ltd, or UB Group, chairman Vijay Mallya on Monday told a special court that he cannot be said to have “refused to return to India” as he is cooperating with the authorities in the UK in a case related to extradition proceedings and has submitted himself to that jurisdiction.
Mallya has, in his reply submitted through his lawyers to the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, said his adherence to the UK law cannot and does not render him a ‘Fugitive Economic Offender’.
“Despite efforts to repay public sectors, the enforcement directorate (ED) has at every stage resisted the effort,” said Mallya’s response, which ran into more than 135 pages. “The endeavor of the applicant (ED), who is a central government body, is to confiscate assets and thereby deprive creditors such as public sector banks who were lenders to Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), employees of KFA who are claiming salaries and TDS and other authorities such as income tax and service tax who have made claims on KFA,” the reply said.
Amit Desai, senior counsel for Mallya, argued that the court should first hear the intervention petition filed by various stakeholders, including the State Bank of India (SBI), Standard Chartered Bank, USL, and Mallya’s relatives.
Hiten Venegaonkar, an advocate representing the ED argued that the intervention petition is only related to protecting the properties but if the court first hears the plea to declare Mallya a fugitive economic offender and if the investigation agencies successfully convince the court, it will not be necessary to hear the other cases.
“We have sent Mallya several summonses and notices to be present at Karnataka high court but neither he nor his counsel has appeared even once. However, here when the ED is contemplating to declare him fugitive economic offender, for the first time he files his reply through his lawyers,” argued Lakshmi Iyengar, counsel for the official liquidator for United Breweries Holdings Ltd.