NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case on Tuesday against liquor baron Vijay Mallya in connection with alleged loan default of Rs 6,027 crore availed from a consortium of nationalised banks.
The agency has filed the case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after it recently obtained details of the case from Central Bureau of Investigation which has filed its FIR after getting a complaint from the State Bank of India.
By registering a fresh case, ED wants to strengthen its probe against the liquor baron and expedite a slew of actions it has initiated against him, including getting issued a global arrest warrant by Interpol and attaching more of his assets under the stringent PMLA.
Besides Mallya, his companies Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries Holdings Limited have also been named as accused in the CBI FIR which is now part of the ED case.
The CBI had filed case against Mallya in the loan default case pertaining to State Bank of India early this month. The agency filed the FIR under charges of cheating (420) and criminal conspiracy (120B) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The agency alleged that the Mallya cheated a consortium of nationalised banks to the tune of Rs 6,027 crore by not keeping commitments to repay loans taken for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
The fresh case was registered on the basis of a complaint received from State Bank of India on behalf of the consortium of banks for causing loss of Rs 6,027 crore to them by not keeping repayment commitments of his loan taken during 2005 to 2010.
Last year, the CBI had registered a case against Mallya, some of his top employees, Kingfisher Airlines and some IDBI Bank officials for allegedly violating norms while disbursing 900-crore loan from IDBI bank to the airline.
In the present case, the agency alleged that State Bank of India and its consortium banks had advanced various credit facilities to Kingfisher Airlines Limited during the period between 2005 and 2010. During 2009-10, the company failed to meet its repayment commitments to the bank from whom it had availed the credit facilities and Kingfisher Airlines did not keep its account with the consortium banks regular which became NPA.
The consortium banks, therefore, recalled the credit facilities and also invoked corporate guarantee of UBHL and personal guarantee of Mallya.
Mallya deliberately did not repay the amount, outstanding dues payable by Kingfisher Airlines to consortium of banks. SBI has an exposure of Rs 1,600 crore to the airline. Out of this, the bankers, which recalled the loan in February 2013, could recover only around Rs 1,100 crore after selling pledged shares of UB Group companies.
Other banks that have exposure to the airline include Punjab National Bank and IDBI Bank (Rs 800 crore each), Bank of India (Rs 650 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 550 crore), Central Bank of India (Rs 410 crore). UCO Bank has to recover Rs 320 crore, Corporation Bank (Rs 310 crore), State Bank of Mysore (Rs 150 crore), Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 140 crore), Federal Bank (Rs 90 crore), Punjab and Sind Bank (Rs 60 crore) and Axis Bank (Rs 50 crore).