Embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya faced a setback in his battle to save his posh London home from foreclosure by Swiss bank UBS after the UK High Court rejected many of the arguments relied on by his legal team.
The bank has sought repossession of the property at Cornwall Terrace, overlooking Regent's Park in central London, over the non-payment of a 20.4-million pounds mortgage loan.
However, the London High Court did not “rule in favour” of Swiss banking giant UBS to take possession Mallya’s Central London house, as reported by ANI. The court also also did not ask Mallya to pay a hefty amount of 88,000 pounds to the UBS Investment Bank, in the preliminary hearing, as the agency report said.
A 10-day trial is scheduled to take place 7 from May, 2019, reported The Times of India. This particular London court ruling was related to the arguments presented by Mallya’s legal team, which was struck down for being “unsustainable.”
The property was referred to in the UK High Court as a “high class home for Dr Vijay Mallya and his family members and United Breweries Group corporate guests”.
The High Court on Wednesday, ruled on the UBS' application to strike out parts of the defence and found substantially in favour of the bank.
"UBS is pleased with the decision. Given that proceedings are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further," UBS said in a statement.
UBS had first called in the loan in June, 2016, just eight months before the end of the five-year mortgage period, as by then, they said that Mallya had already been sucked into various legal battles, ANI reported.
Mallya Remains on Bail
Meanwhile, Mallya remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard last year on fraud and money laundering charges brought by the Indian government, amounting to nearly Rs 9,000 crore.
A ruling in his extradition case is expected at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London next month.
The extradition trial, which opened at the London court on December 4 last year, is aimed at laying out a prima facie case of fraud against Mallya and establishing there are no bars to him being extradited to face Indian courts over the allegations relating to loans made out to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
(Note: The Quint earlier reported that the UK Court ordered UBS to take possession of Mallya’s Central London house based on an alert by news agency ANI. That information was not entirely correct and the story has been updated to reflect that.)
(With inputs from PTI, ANI and The Times of India)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)