Loan default case: CBI court issues NBW against Vijay Mallya

A special court in Mumbai has issued a nonbailable warrant NBW against fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya in a Rs 180crore loan default case linked to Indian Overseas Bank IOBThe NBW was issued against Mallya on June 29 by special CBI court judge SP Naik Nimbalkar and a detailed order was made available on MondayCiting other nonbailable warrants issued against the 68yearold businessman after taking into account CBI submission and his status as a fugitive the court noted this is a fit case to issue an openended NBW against him to secure his presenceThe CBI probing the case has claimed the promoter of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines caused a wrongful loss of more than Rs 180 crore to the governmentrun bank by wilfully defaulting in paymentsThe embattled liquor tycoon who has already been declared a fugitive economic offender in a money laundering case probed by the Enforcement DirectorateED currently resides in London and the Indian government is seeking his extraditionThe warrant was related to a cheating case registered by the CBI for alleged diversion of loans availed by the thenoperational Kingfisher Airlines from IOB between 2007 and 2012As per a chargesheet filed in the case in the court recently by the central agency these credit facilities were issued to the grounded private carrier by the bank under an agreementThe Reserve Bank of India RBI had in August 2010 directed the complainant bank in the case State Bank of India SBI to consider the proposal of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd KAL for restructuring of existing facilities by relaxing the concerned guidelines as a onetime measure for the aviation sector the probe agency said in the documentAccordingly the lenders including IOB restructured the existing credit facilities to KAL through a Master Debt Recast Agreement MDRA The agreement was signed between the KAL and a consortium of 18 banksThe allegations in the case pertain to false promises diversion of loans for the purposes other than it was availed the CBI saidThe accused dishonestly and with intent to cheat wilfully defaulted on the repayment obligations under the aforesaid loans and caused a wrongful loss of Rs 14191 crore on the account of default on loans the chargesheet claimedThe probe agency further alleged that an additional wrongful loss of Rs 3830 crores was caused on the account conversion of loans to sharesTaking cognizance of the chargesheet the CBI court issued process summons against Mallya and five other accused in the caseHowever the probe agency pressed for issuance of an NBW against Mallya saying the accused is a fugitive and an absconderCiting multiple cases where NBWs and summonses have been issued against the embattled businessman the CBIs plea said he is presently living in England and continues to subvert the process of law in IndiaConsidering the CBI submission the court said Mallya has absconded declared a fugitive and NBWs are pending for execution against him in other cases So no purpose will be served by issuing process summons to himThis is a fit case to issue an openended NBW against accused Mallya for securing his presence it observedThe former Rajya Sabha MP was declared a Fugitive Economic Offender in January 2019 by a special court for cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLAMallya accused of defaulting on multiple loan repayments and money laundering left India in March 2016This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever