PMLA court allows restoration of Mallya’s properties to banks

Mumbai: A special PMLA court in Mumbai on Tuesday allowed the restoration of properties of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya that were seized by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to a consortium of banks which had provided him loans.

This was the second such order passed by Special Judge JC Jagadale in over a week.

The combined value of property to be restored to banks runs into several crore rupees, a lawyer representing Mallya said.

Mallya is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

A consortium of 17 banks that gave Mallya loans, led by State Bank of India, had sought restoration of his properties seized by the ED.

The properties as described in the application are hereby restored to the applicant banks through the recovery officer, the court said.

The court rejected Mallya’s application seeking a stay on the order.

The said order is a conditional one in which the concerned recovery officer has been directed to submit an undertaking as per provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering (Restoration of Property) Rules, 2016, the court said.

The court added that, obviously, it will take time to submit such an undertaking, and in the meantime, the aggrieved party may challenge the said order, and, therefore, there is no need to stay the order.