Mallya faces four more non-bailable arrest warrants
HYDERABAD: A Hyderabad court issued four non- bailable warrants on Monday against liquor baron Vijay Mallya in cheating cases filed by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd and directed police to produce him along with former Kingfisher Airlines CFO A Raghunathan by March 29.
The airport operator alleged cheques totalling ` 4 crore issued by the airline bounced and filed 11 cases against Kingfisher Airlines for non- payment of dues to the tune of ` 8 crore. Nonbailable warrants were issued as Mallya and others failed to comply with court orders to appear before it.
Mallya left the country on March 2 with unpaid loans of about ` 7,200 crore and tweeted from an unknown location, saying he was not on the run and would abide by the law.
His departure came days before a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India approached the Supreme Court to restrain him from leaving India.
Earlier, the 14th additional chief metropolitan court in Hyderabad issued non-bailable warrants on March 12 against Mallya and Raghunathan in connection with one of the cases filed by GMR.
Police were directed to produce them in court by April 13. That set of non- bailable warrants pertained to a Rs 50 lakh cheque- bounce case and was issued after Mallya, Raghunathan and the company’s authorised signatory failed to appear as directed on March 10.
Though Mallya’s lawyer pleaded for exemption from appearance for some more time, GMR’s counsel opposed that on the grounds that it was not an ordinary matter.
GMR had withdrawn an earlier cheque-bounce case in 2012 after the airline agreed to pay the amount outstanding then. After Kingfisher Airlines paid only a part of the amount and defaulted on paying the remaining Rs 8 crore, the 11 cases were filed.
CBI GRILLS FORMER CFO OF KINGFISHER
NEW DELHI: The CBI on Tuesday questioned the then chief financial officers (CFOs) of UB Group and defunct Kingfisher Airlines in connection with the alleged loan default case, sources said.
The CFOs — A Raghunathan (Kingfisher) and Ravi Nedungadi (UB Group) — appeared before the investigators in the afternoon.
The anti- corruption probe agency had registered a case against the then UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines, Raghunathan and unknown officials of IDBI Bank, alleging that a ` 900 crore IDBI Bank loan was sanctioned in violation of the norms regarding credit limits on the basis of a complaint received from the bank.
On the basis of the CBI FIR, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) initiated a money-laundering probe to see if money was diverted to other businesses. It also sought details of loans taken by Mallya’s company from public-sector banks.