A consortium of banks led by SBI on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking “complete and detailed disclosure of assets” from liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is wanted in a series of loan default cases.
If he fails to do so, the lenders said that they may initiate contempt proceedings against him for defying the apex court’s directions over disclosure of assets.
[related-post]
Alleging that Mallya has not complied with the apex court’s order to fully disclose his assets, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the banks, asked a bench headed by Justice Kurian Joseph for an urgent hearing in the matter.
The bench agreed to hear the mater on July 18. In April, the top court had directed Mallya, the chairman of United Breweries to disclose all assets held by him and his family, after a consortium of creditors rejected his offer to repay R4,000 crore to settle the debts of the grounded Kingfisher Airlines (KAL). KAL owes R9,091 crore to the consortium of 17 banks, including SBI.
Pursuant to the top court’s order, Mallya – who has fled from the country and is currently in the UK – had disclosed a list of assets held by him in India to the apex court in a sealed envelope. The tycoon had pegged his domestic assets at R2,014.60 crore and overseas assets worth R780 crore.
The consortium in its fresh application told the court that Mallya has not obeyed its directions of April 7 to disclose all his properties – movable, immovable, shareholdings and any right, title or interest including beneficial interest and those held in fiduciary capacity, in private trusts, public trusts, companies, partnerships, limited liability partnerships and/or any other entity both in India and abroad, etc in any form whatsoever as on March 31, 2016.
He has not at all disclosed the details of the assets in various forms/entities such as beneficial interest etc and “in fact, there is no whisper regarding the said details in the disclosure statement,” the application stated, adding it “reserves liberty to initiate appropriate proceedings against Mallya in this regard.”
According to lenders, the discloser is “prima facie vague and lacks any material particulars.” The location of the assets is so unclear that it is not practically possible for any person other than Mallya to identify them, they said.
Even there is not a word about the amount of $40 million, a part of $75 million payout package signed with London-based Diageo Plc, it had received pursuant to an agreement of February 25, the consortium said, adding that it believes that Mallya has other assets in India and abroad and is deliberately evading his obligations under the personal guarantee given to it on December 21, 2010.
On June 11, the Enforcement Directorate had attached property worth Rs1,411 crore belonging to Mallya and his United Breweries in connection with a money laundering probe in the IDBI Bank loan default case. A special court had declared Mallya a proclaimed offender in the case and his passport has been revoked.
