(LiveMint)
India on Friday made its first move to clampdown on big bank loan defaulters under a new law as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) moved court against liquor baron Vijay Mallya seeking to declare him a “fugitive offender” and to confiscate his assets worth Rs12,500 crore. The request is part of the second charge sheet filed in the alleged money laundering case in the Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (KFA) loan default of over Rs9,000 crore. Mint had reported this on 18 June.
Officials said the central probe agency filed an application before a special court in Mumbai, under the recently promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, which empowers it to confiscate “all linked assets” of an absconding loan defaulter. The application accessed by PTI said the ED seeks to “confiscate all the properties of Vijay Mallya including those properties indirectly controlled by him.” The application said the “estimated value of properties proposed for confiscation is to the tune of Rs12,500 crore approximately, which includes immovable properties as well as movable properties in form of shares.”
The ED, in the application, furnished evidences that it filed as part of its two charge sheets against Mallya and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and stated that in both cases, non-bailable warrants have been issued against Mallya by the court.
