Vijay Mallya, who has been absconding from India since 2016 lost a UK lawsuit filed by Indian Banks seeking to collect more than $1.5 billion in connection with the alleged fraud committed by him.
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Judge Andrew Henshaw in London stated on Tuesday that the lenders, one of them being IDBI bank Ltd., can enforce an Indian court ruling that relates to Mallya wilfully defaulting about $1.4 billion in debt for his Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. The Kingfisher Airlines was a premier airline founded in 2005 and shut down its operations seven years later.
Mallya was recently arrested in London on April 18 on a warrant issued by Indian authorities on charges of committing conspiracy to defraud IDBI Bank through a Rs 91 billion loan to Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. Judge Henshaw also refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya’s assets on Tuesday.
The 62-year-old Mallya is fighting numerous lawsuits in the UK as well as in India for allegations ranging from committing massive fraud to conspiracy. He was arrested in 2017 and has been fighting to block extradition in a different court just three blocks away.
Judge Hershaw also refused permission to appeal Tuesday’s ruling, which entails that his lawyers now will have to petition the Court of Appeal directly. No comment was made by the lawyers representing Mallya.
The attorneys from TLT law firm in London stated how the recent judgement will help them to enforce the underlying judgement by the Indian Debt recovery tribunal immediately. TLT is representing the lenders in this case. The freeze had forced Mallya to live on 5000 pounds per week but it was raised to around 20,000 pounds per week earlier.
With the walls closing in on Vijay Mallya and the Modi government coming up with the ‘Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance‘, it remains to be seen how long Mallya can evade the law and not answer for his fraud to the Indian authorities.