Mumbai: Certain real estate properties and securities belonging to fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya can be sold by a State Bank of India (SBI) led consortium to recover unpaid loans.
The order regarding this was passed by a special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court on June 1 permitting the restoration of properties of Mallya that were seized by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to the banks under the consortium which had provided him loans,.
The combined value of assets comprising various floors of the UB City commercial tower in Bengaluru’s central business district and stocks in United Spirits and United Breweries that Mallya had controlled are assessed to be worth Rs 5,646.54 crore, the Economic Times reported.
The special PMLA court in Mumbai, however, asked banks to execute a bond undertaking to return the properties if the fugitive businessman was absolved in the case or if his trial could not be concluded.
Mallya is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines. A consortium of 17 banks that gave Mallya loans, led by SBI, had sought restoration of his properties seized by the ED.
The court rejected Mallya’s application seeking a stay on the order.
The said order is a conditional one in which the concerned recovery officer has been directed to submit an undertaking as per provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering (Restoration of Property) Rules, 2016, the court said.
The court added that, obviously, it will take time to submit such an undertaking, and in the meantime, the aggrieved party may challenge the said order, and, therefore, there is no need to stay the order.
