Bombay high court rejects Vijay Mallya plea for stay on ED move to tag him fugitive

Bizman approached high court after ED sought to confiscate his properties

The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday rejected a plea filed by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, seeking a stay on proceedings initiated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to declare Mallya a fugitive economic offender and confiscate his properties. Mallya had approached the HC after the special Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) court rejected his plea for staying proceedings initiated by ED on October 30.

Vijay Mallya is currently a proclaimed fugitive and has been staying in London for the past two years.(AP FILE)

A division bench of justices RM Savant and VK Jadhav rejected Mallya’s appeal, observing that the order of the special PMLA court was not appealable under provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, and therefore Mallya’s appeal was not maintainable.

The ED had moved the Special PMLA Court invoking provisions of recently-enacted Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, seeking to declare Mallya a fugitive economic offender.

The provisions of the act would allow authorities to confiscate Mallya’s assets. Mallya is accused of duping public sector banks to the tune of ₹ 9,990 crore and also of laundering a large part of the purportedly ill-gotten money out of the country.

He is currently a proclaimed fugitive and has been staying in London for the past two years.

Advancing arguments on behalf of the liquor baron, advocate Amit Desai said Mallya’s endeavour is to clear the loans taken from the public sector banks, but the ED was not allowing him to do so. However, the HC was not inclined to grant Mallya any relief.

The ED had initiated proceedings against Mallya after two separate offences were registered against him in connection with huge loans taken for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, from a consortium of 12 banks led by the State Bank of India.