With the uncertainty hanging over the extradition of liquor barren and absconder Vijay Mallya, the question is will India be able to bring him back?
Close on the heels of liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s extradition hearing in London last week, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to file another chargesheet on the matter, within a month.
Many senior officials of banks who had dealt with loans given to Mallya’s now grounded Kingfisher Airlines may be named as accused in the new chargesheet by CBI, said people with knowledge of the matter.
This would be the first chargesheet in the case pertaining to loans of more than ₹ 6,000 crores given to Kingfisher Airlines by a consortium of 17 banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) which alone had an exposure of ₹ 1,600 crores.
The agency has already filed a charge sheet against Mallya last year in connection with a separate case related to a ₹ 900 crore loan by IDBI Bank Ltd, in which senior officials of the state-run bank were allegedly involved. The CBI had registered two cases against Mallya related to the IDBI loans in 2015 and consortium loan in 2016.
Vijay Mallya fled the country on March 2, 2016. He recently made a sensational revelation that he had met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley before leaving the country. However, Jaitley denied having given an appointment to the liquor barren.
With the uncertainty hanging over the extradition of liquor barren and absconder Vijay Mallya, the question is will India be able to bring him back? HW News Brings you reactions from across the political parties:
Akhilesh Bhargava, HW Business & Finance Editor:
“I don’t think it is a question of whether Vijay Mallya will be brought back to India. Firstly, his extradition proceedings going on in London, look like will go in his favor. From the legal perspective, he will not be dragged in India because he has been extradited. He might not even be jailed. The Arthur Jail controversy has already died down. The real question is, would he want to come back. I think Vijay Mallya would want to come back to India. On sheer logic, most of his assets are still in India. It is very obvious that he would want to come back and take back the assets before they are all impounded under the new Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.”
Bhai Jagtap, Mumbai Congress Vice President:
“I don’t think so, for the very the simple reason that the sitting government (BJP Government) has, in fact, helped many people to flee from India and not just Vijay Mallya. The names on the list are never-ending, it contains names right from Vijay Mallya to Lalit Modi to Nirav Mod to Mehul Chowksi and so on. They fled with innocent people’s livelihood in hand. I don’t think this government will ever try to bring him back to the country. People have started doubting their intentions. The best example of this would be like the case of Vijay Mallya would be Nirav Modi. There was information furnished to the PMO about his fraudulent deeds and he might flee from India soon. The PMO continued his silence and as a result, he fled. This government has supported the frauds in the country to flee. The reasons that they are providing to justify their deeds will not be accepted by us and the people of this country. Mr. Rahul Gandhi, in fact, has actually helped CBI to unearth such a big fraudulent deed and if Congress comes in power stringent action will be taken towards curbing such acts.”