Vijay Mallya Claims ED Had no Legal Basis for Attaching His Assets

ED attached properties of the liquor baron and United Breweries, worth Rs 1,411 crore.

Vijay Mallya. (Photo: The Quint)

Vijay Mallya said on Sunday that there is no legal basis for the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) action of attaching his assets in the IDBI Bank loan default case.

He has called the ED’s investigation as a “heavily biased” one.

The assets purportedly attached under PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) date back to several years prior to the launch of Kingfisher Airlines. There is no rationale nor any legal basis for the series of actions initiated by the ED which is now making it more difficult to raise resources to pay the banks.

Vijay Mallya

The ED on Saturday had attached properties of the liquor baron and United Breweries Limited, worth Rs 1,411 crore, in the IDBI Bank loan default case.

The assets under “provisional attachment” included

• Bank balance of Rs 34 crore
  
• 2,291 sq/ft flat in Bengaluru
  
• 1,300 sq/ft in Mumbai
  
• Industrial plot in Chennai (4.5 acres)
  
• A coffee plantation in Coorg (28.75 acres)
  
• Residential and commercial constructed areas in UB City
  
• Kingfisher Tower in Bengaluru (84,0279 sq/ft)

The attachment of properties is in connection with the Rs 900-crore loan fraud with the IDBI Bank.

Mallya, whose defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, left India on 2 March. He has since been in the UK.

The agency registered a money laundering case against him and others based on an FIR registered last year by the CBI. It is also investigating financial structure of the Kingfisher Airlines and possible payment of kickbacks to secure loans.

The ED is also seeking to invoke the India-United Kingdom Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) to have him extradited from Britain.