ED seeks fugitive tag for Mallya, to seize Rs 12,500-cr assets

Agency files application before Mumbai court under new ordinance

India on Friday made its first official move to clamp down against big bank loan defaulters under a new law as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) moved a court against liquor baron Vijay Mallya seeking to declare him a 'fugitive offender' and to confiscate his assets worth Rs 12,500 crore.

Officials said the agency filed an application before a Mumbai court under the recently promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance that empowers it to confiscate all assets of an absconding loan defaulter.

The application seeks to immediately confiscate about Rs 12,500 crore assets of Mallya and his companies, both movable and immovable. This is the first case under the newly promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance of Government of India.

The ED has furnished evidences in its two charge sheets, filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the past, to make a case for seeking a fugitive offender tag for Mallya from the court.

Mallya is contesting these money laundering charges in London as part of India's efforts to extradite him from there and face the legal system here in connection with an overall alleged loan default of over Rs 9,000 crore of various banks.

As per the existing process of law under the PMLA, the ED can confiscate the assets only after the trial in a case finishes which usually takes many years.