Bengaluru DRT allows consortium of banks to recover Rs 9,000 cr from Vijay Mallya

Mallya, moved to Britain in March of last year. Enforcement authorities and a SBI-led consortium of banks have been pursuing him to repay over Rs 6,000 crore  in loans and debts that Kingfisher Airlines acquired over the years.

The tribunal directed the recovery of the original amount of Rs. 6,203 crore plus interest at the rate of 11.5 per cent from the date of filing of application in 2013.

The order on Thursday will bring the curtains down on the nearly three-year legal battle in the tribunal by the consortium of banks, comprising 17 banks, to recover the money owed by defunct airlines.

SBI, leading the consortium of banks,  had filed three other applications also, including one seeking Mallya’s arrest and impounding his passport, for “defaulting” on loans.

Vijay Mallya, who is currently in UK, has been declared a Proclaimed Offender by a special PMLA court in Mumbai on a plea of Enforcement Directorate in connection with its money laundering probe against him in the alleged bank loan default case.

On March 7 ,2016, the DRT had also restrained Mallya from withdrawing $75 million exit payment from British liquor giant Diageo as part of a severance package for quitting Diageo-owned United Spirits (USL) as its Chairman under a “sweetheart deal”.

Last year, on July 13 , the tribunal ruled that the order had become “infructuous” as $40 million had already been transferred prior to the March 7 directive. Later that year DRT passed orders directing Diageo Plc to deposit the remaining $35 million from the deal with Vijay Mallya.

In July last year, DRT also allowed another IA of the bankers for lifting of corporate veil to pierce the protection against personal liability enjoyed by individuals controlling Kingfisher Finvest, a holding company of Mallya.