Indian Court Rejects Vijay Mallya’s Plea Seeking Stay On Petition To Declare Him As Offender

India’s Bombay high court on Thursday (22) rejected an appeal filed by business tycoon Vijay Mallya seeking a stay on the petition filed by country’s law enforcement and economic intelligence agency, Enforcement Directorate (ED) before a trial court to start legal proceedings against Mallya under Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.

According to a report by news agency ANI, ED wants Mallya to be declared as a fugitive economic offender and assets to be confiscated under the law in connection with Rs 90 billion alleged bank fraud case. The probe agency also sought the court ruling to confiscate all his assets whose value is estimated to be around Rs 125bn.

According to the new Indian law, a fugitive economic offender is an individual against whom warrants for arrest are issued for his role in the select economic offence involving a sum of at least one billion rupees or more and has moved out of India so as to avoid legal proceedings. The new law, Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 got the nod from Indian president this year.

Bombay high court’s latest ruling is another major setback to insecure liquor baron after UK high court’s order on Wednesday (21). The court in London ordered to pay £88000 to Swiss lender, UBS Investment Bank which had issued £20.4 million mortgage loan to Mallya’s London house. The court ruled to pay the sum by January 4, 2019.

The lender earlier in its petition before UK high court sought the possession of Mallya’s London house on the grounds that the mortgage hasn’t repaid by the borrower. The immovable property faces London’s Regent’s Park, was being used by Mallya as his family home.

The former boss of grounded Kingfisher Airline, who is on bail on an extradition warrant after his arrest in April 2017 is in a long battle against the attempts of the Indian government to get him extradited from the UK on charges of fraud and money laundering amounting Rs 90bn.

Former liquor baron is staying in the UK since March 2016. His extradition case is in its final stage at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London is expected to deliver its a ruling later this year.

The legal proceedings in the extradition from the UK involves a number of steps including a judgment by the judge on whether or not to issue a warrant of arrest.

Yet another court proceedings, Mallya had also lost his appeal in the UK’s Court of Appeal against a UK High Court ruling which favoured 13 Indian lenders to recover sum amounting nearly £1.145bn