Vijay Mallya, who is facing charges of fraud and money laundering worth several thousands of crores, made a 17.86-million pound (Rs 170 crore) transfer to a bank in Switzerland in November 2015, a transaction that was red-flagged to Indian authorities by their counterparts in the UK, a report in The Indian Express citing sources has claimed.

An alert regarding this transfer was sent to Indian investigating agencies by the UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) on June 28, 2017, a move that eventually got 13 lending banks to form a consortium and move against Mallya and the freezing of his assets in the UK, the report says. A Worldwide Freezing Order (WFO) was also issued against Mallya in the UK in November 2017.

The FIU had converted Mallya’s bank transfer into an SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) and sent the information to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in New Delhi. At a meeting between the agencies’ officials in London, UK authorities had advised that Mallya be restrained from disposing of his assets, the IE report says.

While Indian banks could not prevent Mallya from undertaking the Rs 170-crore transfer to Switzerland banks, the liquor barron did eventually lose control over his UK assets valued at 1.14 billion pounds via the WFO, the report says. This too was after the UK advised Indian authorities at the meet that lenders should try and extend the enforcement of the Debt Recovery Certificate and the Bengaluru tribunal’s order against Mallya in February 2017, to the UK.

Now 62 years old, Mallya had left the country on March 2, 2016 and is fighting litigation against his extradition to India.

The CBI had yesterday said that the first lookout circular against embattled businessman Vijay Mallya for his detention at the airport was not sustainable in law and needed correction as there was no warrant against him at that time. The agency reiterated its position that there were no grounds to arrest Mallya on November 24, 2015 when he returned from London on the basis of the lookout circular (LOC) issued on October 16, 2015 calling for his detention, agency sources said.

The first circular needed modification as Mallya had been cooperating with the agency, the evidence was still being collected, he was a sitting MP and there was no warrant against him, the sources said. Realising the need for correction in the notice, the agency wrote to immigration authorities to change it from seeking Mallya’s detention to informing the CBI whenever he was travelling abroad.

The corrected look out circular was issued on November 24, 2015 and even after the issuance of the notice, Mallya continued to provide documents and answer questions of the investigating team, they said. He appeared for questioning thrice and made foreign trips four times after the new LOC was issued, they said.