India seeks fugitive tag for Mallya; ED moves court to confiscate assets worth Rs 12,500 crore

Mumbai/New Delhi: India today made its first move to clampdown on big bank loan defaulters under a new law as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) moved court against liquor baron Vijay Mallya seeking to declare him a ‘fugitive offender’ and to confiscate his assets worth Rs 12,500 crore. 

Officials said the central probe agency filed an application before a special court in Mumbai, under the recently promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, that empowers it to confiscate “all linked assets” of an absconding loan defaulter. 

The application accessed by PTI said the ED seeks to “confiscate all the properties of Vijay Mallya including those properties indirectly controlled by him.” 

The application said the “estimated value of properties proposed for confiscation is to the tune of Rs 12,500 crore approximately, which includes immovable properties as well as movable properties in form of shares.” 

The action has been taken in pursuance of two bank loan money laundering cases of over Rs 9,000 crore involving the IDBI bank and a SBI-led consortium and these became predicate offences for the latest action under the Ordinance brought by the Modi government early this year. 

The ED, in the application, furnished evidences that it filed as part of its two charge sheets against Mallya and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and stated that in both cases, non-bailable warrants have been issued against Mallya by the court.