Central agencies probing the alleged default on loans by businessman Vijay Mallya’s defunct Kingfisher Airline Limited (KAL) are considering the option of allowing him to return to India to join investigations via a special travel permit.
Such permits are granted to Indians by embassies abroad in emergency cases. The option of offering Mallya a special travel permit, which can be provided at the embassy or consular levels in the UK, where he has been staying since March this year, is being considered in the light of his lawyer’s recent submission to a Delhi court indicating his intent to return, said a government source familiar with the probe against him.
Mallya’s lawyer had told the court last week that the businessman wants to return to India, but is unable to travel despite his best intentions as his passport has been revoked. The court was hearing a case related to a complaint of alleged FERA violation against Mallya. “If he is sincere about returning, it can be examined if he can be given an option to return to India to face probes by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a special travel permit,” said the source. The move is also being considered at a time when the options to bring Mallya back have reduced in number.
While the UK, in May, had refused to deport Mallya on technical grounds, the ED’s recent move to get him “transferred” to India — by invoking a clause in the 1992 India-UK Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) — did not get the required nod from the home ministry, according to the source.
India had revoked the passport of Mallya, who is wanted in a money-laundering case being probed by the ED, after a Mumbai court issued a non-bailable warrant in April this year against him in a case related to KAL’s alleged default on a Rs 900-crore loan by IDBI bank.
Mallya had earlier left India for the UK in March at a time when KAL was being probed by the ED and CBI. Later, in May, the ED approached Interpol for the issuance of a Red Corner Notice against Mallya.
