In a second setback to Vijay Mallya within a week, a Special Court here on Thursday rejected his plea seeking a stay on the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s request to declare him a ‘fugitive’ under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, officials said.
A week after the Bombay High Court (on November 22) dismissed a similar appeal filed by Mallya, the Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court dismissed Mallaya’s application to stay the proceedings on ED’s plea to declare Mallya as a ‘fugitive economic offender’
In his plea filed before the Special PMLA court on June 22, the ED had urged the court to declare Mallya as ‘fugitive economic offender’ and allow it to confiscate all his properties, estimated at more Rs 12,000-crore, making it the first such case of its kind under the new Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA) against him..
The PMLA court had summoned Mallya to appear before it on August 27. However, Mallaya failed he failed to appear before the court. Even in the past, he has failed to honour the court summons and also other notices, summons and arrest warrants issued by the ED for questioning the loan default and money laundering scams.
It may be recalled on June 14 last year, the ED had against Mallya in the Rs 900-crore IDBI Bank- Kingfisher Airline loan default and money laundering case in a special court hereon Wednesday.
Among other things, a 57-page charges-sheet filed by ED before the special court provided details about the manner in which the loan was approved and how subsequently Mallya’s now-defunct airline allegedly diverted laundered the money sanctioned to it, violating the provisions of under the PMLA.
In a separate case relating to the default in the re-payment of loan to the IDBI Bank, the CBI had on January 24 last year filed a 1,000 page charge-sheet against Vijay Mallya and 10 others in the Rs 900 crore Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) loan repayment default case in a special court here and arrested nine officials, including ex-IDBI Bank chairman Yogesh Agarwal.
