Money laundering case: ED for revocation of Vijay Mallya’s passport, if he doesn’t reply

The agency has already written to 17 banks who lent money to the grounded Kingfisher Airlines and later went to the Debt Recovery Tribunal.

Vijay Mallya

Enforcement Directorate will move the government to revoke the passport of liquor baron Vijay Mallya if he does not respond to its summons for appearance at its Mumbai office on March 18. The agency wants to question Mallya on his exit from USL and its probe which has found that foreign remittances allegedly flew out of Kingfisher Airlines and other companies headed by Mallya to various countries including the UK.

“He should either be present in front of us or make a legal representation. If he fails to respond we will get his passport revoked just as we did in the case of Lalit Modi. Other consequences will follow ..,” said an ED officer.

ED sources said the agency is also investigating the circumstances under which Mallya had to quit from the board of directors of USL.

Story continues below this ad

“We need to investigate what are these financial irregularities. Was any money siphoned abroad from USL under his watch. Under what circumstances did he quit USL board of directors. We have found many instances of money from companies headed by Mallya having been sent abroad. Some of these have been remitted to tax havens. We need Mallya to answer questions related to these transactions,” said the officer.

The agency has already written to 17 banks who lent money to the grounded Kingfisher Airlines and later went to the Debt Recovery Tribunal.

It has also sent official requests seeking details of the probe conducted by the Income Tax and Service Tax departments and the Special Frauds Investigation Office(SFIO) against the airline in the past.

Sources said the agency is also looking for details of overseas and domestic assets of Mallya and his company officials, in coordination with central security agencies and the CBI.

Story continues below this ad

ED has already questioned two senior officials in the money laundering case, former chief financial officer of the airlines A Raghunathan and former United Breweries chief financial officer Ravi Nedungadi.

The ED recently registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on a CBI FIR registered last year. The agency is also investigating the overall financial structure of Kingfisher Airlines and will look into any payment of kickbacks.

The ED is looking into the “proceeds of crime” that would have been generated using the slush funds of the alleged loan fraud and it is also probing if some of this amount was sent abroad illegally, they said.

Meanwhile, CBI on Tuesday questioned the then CFO of defunct Kingfisher Airlines and UB Group, A Raghunathan and Ravi Nedungadi, respectively, in connection with alleged loan default case against the airline. Sources said both appeared for questioning and the exercise is still continuing. CBI had registered a case against Mallya, Raghunathan and unknown officials of IDBI Bank alleging that a Rs 900 crore loan was sanctioned in violation of the norms regarding credit limits.