Mallya loses appeal to overturn assets freeze

BUSINESSMAN Vijay Mallya, who faces extradition to India over fraud and money-laundering charges by authorities in that country, on Tuesday (8) lost in the UK high court a lawsuit filed by 13 Indian banks seeking to collect from him more than $1.55 billion.

Judge Andrew Henshaw refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya’s assets and upheld an Indian court’s ruling that a consortium of 13 In­dian banks were entitled to recover funds amounting to nearly $1.55 billion (£1.145bn).

The victory for the banks will enable them to enforce the Indian judgment against Mallya’s assets in Eng­land and Wales. The worldwide freezing order pre­vents the businessman from removing any assets from England and Wales up to that value or to in any way dispose of, deal with or diminish the value of his assets in or outside of this jurisdiction, up to the same value.

The claim against the 62-year-old businessman (left) was heard in the high court last month.

Among the institutions seeking to recover dues from Mallya are the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd.

Mallya and related concerns – Ladywalk LLP, Rose Capital Ventures Ltd and Orange India Holdings – are listed as respondents in the litigation in the Queen’s Bench Division of the commercial court in England’s High Court of Justice.

Meanwhile, Mallya remains on a £650,000 bail bond since his arrest on an extradition warrant by Scotland Yard in April last year. The Crown Prosecu­tion Service (CPS), representing the Indian govern­ment, has claimed the evidence they have presented confirms “dishonesty” on the part of the business­man, who acquired the loans through misrepresen­tation and had no intentions of repaying them.