NONBAILABLE WARRANT AGAINST MALLYA IN FOREX CASE

A Delhi court on Wednesday issued an open ended non-bailable warrant against beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya in a case of allegedly evading summons in a Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) violation case.

Chief metropolitan magistrate Sumit Dass passed the order after the Enforcement Directorate submitted that nonbailable warrant issued on November 4 last year by the court has not been executed and it needs more time to do so.

An ‘open-ended NBW’ does not carry a time limit for execution unlike ‘NBW’.

The court, which put up the matter for next hearing on November 8, however, asked the agency to file a progress report in this regard within two months.

On November 4 last year, while issuing non-bailable warrant against Mallya, the court had observed that he had no inclination to return and had scant regard for the law of the land.

It had said that coercive process has to be initiated against liquor baron Mallya as he was facing proceedings in several cases and evading appearance in those matters.

The court had also held that Mallya’s plea, that he wanted to return to India but was “incapacitated” to travel as his passport had been revoked by Indian authorities, was “malafide” and “abuse of the process of law”.

The court also said that on October 4 it had specifically noted that he could approach authorities and obtain emergency documents to return to India.