ED attaches Vijay Mallya’s properties worth Rs 4234 crore

In the latest, enforcement directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 6,630 crore of Vijay Mallya in connection with its money laundering probe. On Saturday, senior counsel Amit Desai sought further indulgence from the court for Mallya who is in United Kingdom who he said was working out measures to pay his service tax and other liabilities and had even sold his aircraft for nearly Rs 30 crore.

The properties attached on Saturday include Mandwa Farm House in Alibaugh, flats in Kingfisher Towers in Bengaluru, Mallya’s fixed deposits with HDFC, shares of United Spirits Limited, United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd and Macdowell Holding Company held by Mallya, UBL and other entities controlled by him.

But the present market value is Rs 6,630 crore, an official statement said. “So far, ED Mumbaihas attached properties of Dr. Mallya and his companies having market value more than Rs. 8000 crores”, said the Enforcement Directorate. Hence, it appeared that even though sufficient funds were available with the promoters of KFA -Mallya and UBHL -they had no intention to make payment towards the bank loans from the consortium banks.

The official said the ED is investigating the same case in which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 13 had registered a case against Mallya, his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, UBHL and others after State Bank of India approached the agency with a complaint on behalf of a consortium of 17 banks for causing them loss of Rs 6,027 crore. The agency is investigating a money laundering case against Mallya where he defaulted Rs. 900 crore loan payment to IDBI bank. Meanwhile, Mallya has claimed several times that he is in negotiation with banks to settle his loan default case. CBI also recently took over the case.

ED has also been making efforts to get a global arrest warrant issued by Interpol and also to invoke the India-UK Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) in order to force the liquor baron to come back to India. Mallya has been accused of cheating banks by not repaying loans to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore.

In its order the agency also said that Mr Mallya “deliberately and intentionally kept the huge number of shares worth Rs 3600 core pledged with financial institutions like UTI Investment Advisory Services without substantial underlying liabilities and thus kept the consortium in dark”.

ED officials say that apart from attaching properties they are also in the process of sending a request to the United Kingdom where Mallya now is residing.

Mallya flew to London on March 2 just days before a consortium of lenders knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court to recover the debt.