Vijay Mallya, who is yet an unsolved mystery for the BJP, has been garnering headlines. Manmohan Singh, a resident of Khajuria-Nibiram in Pilibhit district’s Bhilsanda block and a farmer who owns eight acres of farm land, could never have imagined that he could even remotely be connected to liquor king Vijay Mallya. However, two of his accounts had been frozen by the bank on charges that he stood as guarantor in one of the loans the bank had lent to former liquor baron Mallya. According to a report in media, Mumbai branch head of Bank of Baroda wrote to the bank’s Nandgaon branch asking them to freeze two of his accounts. Singh has an account in the Nandgaon Branch of Bank of Baroda and also had a farming loan account in the bank after he borrowed Rs. 4 lakh. In fact, just before his accounts were frozen in September 2015, he had repaid Rs. 32,000 against his loans.
Singh then approached the bank manager enquiring of the reason behind the bank’s move to blacklist him. Upon knowing of the reason behind the bank’s move, Singh said he had only seen and heard about Mallya in the news. Anyways, after painful waiting over eight months, Singh’s accounts were finally de-frozen. Puzzle is yet to be solved that how this small farmer was shown as a guarantor of Vijay Mallya. Mallya is not only giving tough time to BJP but now some unknown people too are victimised.
The summons issued is just a damage control act as Mallya deserted the country with the full support of the government. Will the BJP government auction the properties of other defaulters? Some of the leading Corporates owe much larger money than that of Mallya. Most of those corporates took loan on fictitious/conjured firms and diverted to other companies, a clear case of money laundering. Unfortunately, these defaulters are sheltered and protected by BJP government for doing favour to the party. Some of these defaulters are front-runners for takeover of public sector banks for a song. Anything and everything is possible under a pro-rich government. Arun Jaitley has not only failed in bringing back the much promised Black Money but has failed even in checking the defaulters. He has now and again proved that just verbal rhetoric alone is not enough for Finance management.
Vijay Mallya had sought time till April for making a personal appearance before the Enforcement Directorate, virtually making it clear he would not present himself before the anti-money laundering agency pursuant to summons issued by it in the IDBI bank loan default case. The ED had recently registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on a CBI FIR registered in 2015. The agency is also investigating the overall financial structure of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines and will look into any payment of kickbacks to secure loan.
The CBI had booked Mallya, the chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, its directors, former chief financial officer of the airlines A. Raghunathan and unknown officials of the IDBI Bank in its FIR alleging that the loan was sanctioned in violation of norms regarding credit limits. The ED is looking into the “proceeds of crime” that would have been generated using the slush funds of the alleged loan fraud. It is also probing if some of this amount was sent abroad illegally.
Mallya, who is facing legal proceedings for alleged loan defaults by his group to the tune of over Rs. 9,000 crore. As per media reports and BJP informed the court that he has left India, but now all of sudden he said he is not an absconder and he will comply with the law of the land. Even though, Mallya’s words appear harmonious to the people, the time has come now for him to pay off his debts to banks and erstwhile Kingfisher employees. If he could come out of this foreboding situation successfully, he might gain some faith.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
