A Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Tuesday gave it assent to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) plea to declare liquor baron Vijay Mallya as a ‘proclaimed offender’.
“Order under Section 82 must be passed to declare Vijay Mallya a ‘proclaimed offender’,” ED lawyers told the court.
Former Kingfisher Airlines employee Anirudh Ballal, who is leading a movement to seek unpaid salaries from the now de0funct airlines, welcomed the decision and said it would serve as a lesson to other such offenders.
“This is a big judgment by the honourable court for declaring such a highly reputed person like Vijay Mallya as a proclaimed offender on the behest of ED. This has given a strong indication that this government is indeed very serious about bringing defaulters like Dr. Mallya to justice,” he said.
“It is a lesson for the other defaulters that if they try to play with public money they will have to face the law. I also appeal to the government that our unpaid dues be recovered from Dr. Mallya,” he added.
The Enforcement Directorate had on Friday urged the court to declare the absconding tycoon a ‘proclaimed offender’.
The Enforcement Directorate, which has been probing Mallya, had also issued a non-bailable warrant against him.
The agency alleges that out of the Rs. 900 crores loan taken from IDBI bank in 2009, Rs. 430 crores had allegedly been dispatched illegally outside the country.
Both the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation are probing Mallya for the Rs. 9,000 crores loan scam.
Mallya had taken this amount as loan from several banks in order to pay dues of his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Despite Mallya’s visa getting cancelled by the Indian government recently, the liquor baron has managed to stay on in the United Kingdom.
Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha had on Thursday said the government is working on the extradition of liquor baron Vijay Mallya from Britain.
