Trouble seizes to stop for the liquor baron Vijay Mallya, as a UK court has now begun bankruptcy proceedings against the fugitive business tycoon. Mallya is facing proceedings over fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crores.
According to reports, Vijay Mallya is facing bankruptcy proceedings in a London court brought by a consortium of lenders led by the State Bank of India and 12 other banks. The lenders want the court to declare Vijay Mallya bankrupt as part of their efforts to seize his assets in the UK to recover their loans amounting to 1.145 billion pounds, extended by them to Kingfisher Airlines which Mallya had guaranteed to repay.
Mallya had earlier lost his appeal in the UK’s Court of Appeal, against a High Court order in favour of 13 Indian banks to recover this loan. In fact, earlier a London Court had also ordered the confiscation of the six highly expensive cars of Mallya to repay loans to Indian Consortium of Banks.
However, the businessman is planning to contest the fresh petition which, according to him, is “not sustainable”. When Sunday Times approached Vijay Mallya for his reactions on this latest predicament, Mallya replied: “Nothing different to what has been happening over the past four years since the (Indian) government began hounding me.”
The out on bail, 62-years-old, Kingfisher boss had earlier too, suffered a big blow in his quest to save his posh London home from foreclosure by Swiss bank UBS. It was reported in October 2018, that Swiss bank USB had moved the UK High Court seeking an order of eviction against Vijay Mallya, his mother and son from their plush multi-million-pound mansion overlooking Regent’s Park in London. The bank has sought repossession of the property over the non-payment of a 20.4 million pounds’ mortgage loan.
The court had passed the judgement after rejecting all the arguments relied on by Mallya’s legal team. This case relates to a mortgage taken out by Rose Capital Ventures, one of Mallya’s companies. The bank says that Rose Capital, through which the house was originally purchased in 2005, had not repaid the loan, which was stated to be for a period of five years and subject to early termination by the claimant.
According to UBS, despite the loan’s expiry and the claimant’s request that defendants vacate the property, the defendants’ had refused to move out.
The Kingfisher chief has been facing immense turbulence for a while now. The long-fought battle by the CBI, ED and the Indian Government to expedite the extradition process of the fugitive businessman, who was is fighting extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crores, has ultimately paid off with the Westminster Magistrates’ Court recently ordering the extradition of Vijay Mallya to India.
Vijay Mallya, however, defending himself, had asserted in court that the charges were politically motivated. He had also asserted that he had drawn the loans to keep his now-defunct company afloat and there is no fraud involved.
