The Bombay high court on Wednesday observed that a long-running dispute over the recovery of dues from Vijay Mallya needed to “be brought to an end” after being told by Mallya’s lawyer that his 2020 petition against asset seizures was now redundant due to developments over the last six years.
The central development
However, Desai argued that the application no longer survives as most of the mentioned assets have already been attached and dealt with. Mallya’s original 2020 petition challenged an order passed by a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, which had allowed a consortium of lender banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) to utilise assets confiscated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to recover his unpaid dues. On Wednesday, senior advocate Amit Desai, appearing for Mallya, told the court that the 2020 petition was filed when settlement talks were ongoing and sought protection for specific assets.
The court directed ED to file an affidavit clarifying whether the settlement process has concluded and if “everything is done and dusted,” while emphasising that this would not impact the criminal prosecution against Mallya, which must still be “taken to its logical end. The high court said it would decide on the further course of action after hearing from ED’s deputy director concerned.
Mallya’s legal cases and extradition
In February 2019, ED informed the special PMLA court that it had no objection to the SBI-led consortium liquidating Mallya’s confiscated assets to recover the debts. Mallya was declared a fugitive economic offender in January 2019. In July 2015, the Banking Securities & Fraud Cell of the Central Bureau of Investigation registered an FIR against him in connection with alleged irregularities in loans taken by Kingfisher Airlines from a consortium of banks led by IDBI Bank.
Mallya has been facing multiple legal cases in India related to alleged loan defaults, fraud, money laundering and financial irregularities in connection with those loans. He was charged with criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and criminal misconduct.
