Money laundering case: FIU submits report on Vijay Mallya’s foreign trusts, accounts to ED

FIU is the central agency responsible for receiving, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.

According to ED sources, the information received by the agency through the FIU will be the basis of its LR to foreign jurisdictions in the case. The department is yet to issue LRs to certain countries, including South Africa and the UK, seeking help to probe Mallya’s foreign assets. “The LRs seeking help for attachment of offshore accounts of Mallya have to be specific. We have received specific information from the FIU and are working on it,” said an ED source. Kingfisher Airlines has defaulted on bank loans of over Rs 7,000 crore. Kingfisher owes over Rs 9,000 crore to 17 banks in the country.

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Official sources said the special investigation team (SIT) on black money is now monitoring the investigations into the Kingfisher Airlines loan default case. Mallya and his firm has come under the scanner of multiple investigating agencies in the country such as the CBI, SFIO and the service tax department for alleged violations of norms.

Sources said ED’s zonal office in Mumbai is preparing legal papers to take the next step in the wake of Mallya skipping the summons that required him to “personally” join investigations on April 9.

Mallya had last week informed the investigating officer (IO) of the case in Mumbai that he would be unable to depose personally citing the ongoing legal proceedings going on in the Supreme Court over settlement of loans.

He, however, had suggested his legal team could help ED in taking the probe forward. The agency had issued fresh summons last week to Mallya asking him to appear on April 9 after he sought two extensions from the earlier dates of March 18 and April 2.

Replying to Mallya’s suggestions, ED sources said: “We need to question him and not his legal team”.

Officials had earlier said the agency has by and large two options in case an accused skips appearance on summons thrice, the maximum time allowed under the scheme of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The IO of the case had allowed Mallya’s plea to postpone his appearance till now, they said, by considering both technical and legal grounds cited by him for his absence. It is understood that Mallya, while seeking extensions, had informed the IO that cases related to bank loans were currently in the Supreme Court and he was trying to settle these loans with the help of his legal and corporate team and, hence, would require some more time.

With inputs from Deeptiman Tiwary in New Delhi