Liquor baron Vijay Mallya has expressed his inability to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday when the deadline given by the probe agency in connection with money laundering probe ends. In an email, Mallya has asked the ED to give him time till May to record his statement after stating that he is negotiating with banks about loan money.
The ED had asked Mallya to appear before it on April 2 in connection with its money laundering probe in the over Rs. 900 crore IDBI loan fraud case.
The new summons came after the United Breweries (UB) group chairman sought more time from the agency to present himself on a later date instead of the scheduled time for March 18.
The ED had recently registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on a CBI FIR registered last year. 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.
Mallya is facing legal proceedings for alleged default of loans worth over Rs 9,000 crores from various banks. He had recently expressed willingness in Supreme Court for a settlement by offering a proposal to pay back Rs. 4,000 crore by September this year.
The proposal was placed jointly by Mallya and his companies – Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd and Kingfisher Finvest (India) Ltd.
