Former liquor baron and chairman of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, Vijay Mallya was arrested and subsequently granted bail in connection with a money laundering case. This is not the first time Mallya has been arrested , he was held by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on April 18 but soon he got a bail from a UK Court.
According to reports, the Enforcement Directorate had filed a fresh affidavit with a London court submitting fresh evidence on the different loans that Mallya had taken from various banks in India, and how the funds were diverted.
Mallya has repeatedly disobeyed the summons of Indian courts and even failed to show up when non-bailable warrant was issued against him. He secretly left for UK in March, 2016, after defaulting on loans worth Rs 9000 crore that he owed to several public sector banks. Mallya recently rejected latest findings of Indian investigation agencies that the liquor baron diverted most of the Rs 6,000 crore borrowed from a State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders to several countries including US, UK, France and Ireland. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate were planning to file chargesheets against him and present it as evidence in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in UK , so that his extradition could be expedited. India had made an extradition request in February to Britain to send back the businessman to face trial. The beleaguered businessman presently faces at least half a dozen arrest warrants back in India.
