Non-bailable warrant against Mallya in loan default case

Special court also attests extradition request put forward by the CBI.

Vijay Mallya. (Source: File Photo)

A SPECIAL court has issued a non-bailable warrant against Vijay Mallya named as an accused in the chargesheet filed by the CBI last week in a loan default case. This is the second warrant issued by the court after the first one remained unexecuted with Mallya still absconding. Mallya has been named along with 10 others, including Kingfisher Airlines, in the chargesheet filed by the CBI in the IDBI Bank loan default case.

On Friday, the CBI approached the court with over a 100-page affidavit with details of the case against Mallya and his role. The affidavit also has details of the allegations against Mallya and sought his extradition from the United Kingdom where he is reportedly residing. Special Judge HS Mahajan attested the extradition request put forth by the CBI which will now be forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs. It will be then sent to the Ministry of External Affairs, which will process it and send it to its counterpart in UK, said a CBI official.

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Last week, in its chargesheet, the CBI claimed that Kingfisher Airlines had given misleading information to induce the bank to sanction the loan of over Rs 900 crore from IDBI Bank in 2009. The CBI has also alleged that Rs 263 crore of the total sanctioned loan was not used for the purpose stated while seeking the loan. The CBI has also sent Letters Rogatory to countries including US and Switzerland to investigate the alleged diversion of funds by Mallya.

Meanwhile, the special court has begun hearing bail arguments of the nine accused arrested in the case last week. The court heard arguments by five IDBI Bank officials, including former chairman Yogesh Agarwal, deputy managing director O V Bundelu, executive director S K Shrinivasan, general manager R S Sridhar and deputy managing director B K Batra. The accused claimed that the loan granted by IDBI Bank was along with a consortium of banks which was looking into helping the whole aviation industry seeing their condition at that point in time. In separate arguments, they also claimed that the issue of low credit ratings of Kingfisher Airlines raised by the CBI in its chargesheet, was wrong as many corporates with ratings lower than that of the airlines are granted loans.

The court has adjourned the hearing till February 3 when arguments of the remaining four accused officials of Kingfisher Airlines, including its CFO, will be heard. The CBI has opposed the bail plea of the accused stating tampering of evidence as the investigation is still going on in the case.

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