The enforcement directorate (ED) has identified assets worth ₹7,000 crore of liquor baron Vijay Mallya for seizure to add muscle to its attempt to bring him back in to the country.
Government sources said the idea is to “corner Mallya, so that he is forced to come back”.
“We will soon attach more assets belonging to Mallya. We have identified assets worth ₹7,000 crore for the next round of attachments,” a top source in the know of the matter, who did not wish to be named, told HT. “He has to feel vulnerable so that he feels the need to get back to India.”
Vijay Mallya, who has been in the UK since March, owes over ₹9,000 crore to a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India. The directorate has so far attached properties worth ₹8,041 crore belonging to him. He has professed willingness to return to India, but said he cannot travel as his passport has been impounded.
The next round of seizure would not be limited to Indian shores or to properties and assets directly held by Mallya, the sources said. “To force him to join the ED’s probe we have now located properties held directly or indirectly by Mallya in foreign countries,” they said.
{{/usCountry}}The next round of seizure would not be limited to Indian shores or to properties and assets directly held by Mallya, the sources said. “To force him to join the ED’s probe we have now located properties held directly or indirectly by Mallya in foreign countries,” they said.
{{/usCountry}}These would involve properties in the United Kingdom and South Africa, mostly in the name of Mallya’s family members, they added.
Mallya’s lawyers in India did not comment, as the matter is under litigation.
So far, ED has been seizing Mallya’s assets under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the next edition of attachments will be carried out under sections of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The agency has got a proclamation issued by a Mumbai court under CrPC against Mallya after he skipped multiple summonses to depose in its money laundering probe in the bank loan case.
The agency has drawn up a list of his assets: Mallya’s 32.4% shares in UBHL, 22% shareholding in Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers, a 55% stake in UB City, a luxury mall in Bangalore and directly and indirectly held properties in India, UK and South Africa.
The agency, meanwhile, has also moved to add fresh charges against Mallya in its existing request to Interpol for issuance of a global arrest warrant. ED has also been using the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between India and the UK to try and force Mallya to come back to India to face the legal proceedings.