In fresh trouble for Vijay Mallya, a special court today issued a non-bailable “open dated” warrant against the liquor baron in a money laundering case involving alleged defrauding of IDBI Bank of Rs 950 crore.
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court also rejected the application moved by now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines challenging the claim by Enforcement Directorate that Rs 430 crore was siphoned off from the Rs 950 crore loan taken from IDBI Bank and used to acquire properties abroad.
“Non-bailable warrant(NBW) is issued,” ordered special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court judge P R Bhavke. The arrest warrant comes within days of suspension of Mallya’s diplomatic passport.
In its application moved in morning, the KFA had termed the ED’s claim as “false and incorrect” that its owner Mallya had siphoned off Rs 430 crore of the IDBI loan and used this money to acquire property abroad.
The ED had sought NBW against Mallya in connection with the money laundering probe in the alleged Rs 950-crore IDBI Bank loan fraud case.
The ED also showed the court an envelope which it said contained details of money lying in Mallya’s overseas accounts.
The 60-year-old industrialist, who is in UK, has skipped three summons issued by Enforcement Directorate. He had also sought time till May to depose before the officials.
Earlier in the day, the KFA prayed to the court that the court could await submission of the detailed explanation of the utilisation of the proceeds of the IDBI Bank loan with supporting documentary evidence before passing any order on the application of ED seeking NBW.
KFA said that collation of the detailed explanation of the utilisation of proceeds of the IDBI loan disbursed to KFA together with relevant supporting documents, including copies of swift messages giving details of foreign remittances, is at an advanced stage and will be furnished to the ED in the next few days.
“Suffice it to say 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”, the KFA application said.
In an “open dated” NBW, the agency can execute it any time with no time frame unlike in dated NBW.
