MALLYA RETURN A SHOT IN THE ARM FOR PROBE OF BANKERS

NEW DELHI: Businessman Vijay Mallya’s return to India from the UK, inevitable now that he has exhausted his legal options against India’s extradition request, is set to provide impetus to a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of a larger conspiracy involving public sector bankers who lent him money, two CBI officials said.

Bankers cleared loans worth Rs.6,027 crore to Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), ignoring false representations and the fact that the airline was in the red, said the officials, who requested anonymity.

CBI registered a separate case against Mallya and unknown others in August 2016 to probe the alleged conspiracy in the loans extended to Kingfisher by a consortium of 17 banks led by State Bank of India between 2005 and 2010. A chargesheet is yet to be filed in the case as Mallya hasn’t yet been questioned yet.

On his return from the UK, the CBI may interrogate him about the role played by senior bank executives who may have influenced the decision by banks to extend loans to Kingfisher Airlines, the two CBI officials cited above said.

Several top officials of the public sector banks, who approved these loans could face the heat, one of the officials said.