Arrest warrant against Vijay Mallya

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai on Monday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against businessman Vijay Mallya in connection with the Rs 950-crore bank loan scam case.

The Enforcement Directorate had sought a non-bailable warrant against Mallya in connection with the money laundering probe in the Rs 950-crore IDBI loan fraud case.

However, senior counsel Amit Desai on Monday argued on behalf of Kingfisher Airlines and objected that the day when ED had filed application seeking issuance of NBW against Mallya, it had claimed before the court that Rs 430 crore out of the Rs 950 crore loan which the Kingfisher Airlines Ltd had received from IDBI bank were used in purchasing properties outside India. The applicant’s lawyer termed this claim as “false and incorrect.”

However, ED lawyer Hiten Venegaokar interrupted this and said that he used the word “probably”, because the matter is already under investigation.

Advocate Amit Desai also said that KFA officers are cooperating with the agency in investigation but the ED is misleading the court by claiming that Rs 430 crore from the loan amount was used to buy property abroad. He further argued that speculated allegations and possibilities could not be grounds for going for coercive action.

“This fact may have a bearing in the mind of the court so we wanted to correct it before the court,” said Pravna Badeka on behalf of KFA.

The KFA had also requested the court to await the submission of the detailed explanation of the utilisation of the proceeds of the IDBI loan together with supporting documentary evidence before passing any order on the application of ED.

The application further stated that no funds disbursed to KFA by IDBI have been wrongly utilised or utilised for the purpose other than legitimate business purposes, expenses of KFA or have been diverted in any manner by Mallya for his personal benefit or gain.

During the hearing, the agency showed an envelope to the special court containing details of money lying in Mallya’s overseas account. Advocate Venegaokar further stated that when former CFO of KFA A. Ragunath was asked questions regarding the case, he had replied that he could not recollect the answers for most of the questions.

Also, when he was asked to produce the debit and credit transaction over Rs 1 crore, Mr Raghunath had said that he could not provide the details as his computer’s server had crashed.

After hearing all the arguments, the special judge P.R. Bhavake rejected application filed by KFA and issued a NBW against Mallya.

The judge observed that it is found that the accused Mallya was served summons on three occasions however, he failed to appear before the enforcement directorate or the investigating officer and gave evasive reply, thereby avoiding to appear before the investigating agency.

The judge also observed that the offence of money laundering involves a huge amount of Rs 950 crore and the present accused is responsible for laundering of the said amount and his presence is necessary.