A non-bailable warrant (NBW) has been issued against Vijay Mallya, the fugitive businessman, by a special court in Mumbai in connection with a Rs180-crore loan default case involving Indian Overseas Bank (IOB).
The NBW against Mallya was issued by special CBI court judge SP Naik Nimbalkar on June 29, and a detailed order was released on Monday.
Citing other non-bailable warrants issued against the 68-year-old businessman after taking into account CBI submission and his status as a "fugitive", the court noted, "this is a fit case to issue an open-ended NBW against him to secure his presence".
The CBI, probing the case, has claimed the promoter of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines caused the government-run bank a wrongful loss of more than Rs 180 crore by "wilfully" defaulting on payments.
The controversial alcohol mogul, who has previously been labelled a criminal economic fugitive in a money laundering investigation led by the Enforcement Directorate(ED), is currently living in London as the Indian government is working to extradite him.
The warrant was connected to a fraud case filed by the CBI for the alleged misdirection of loans taken by the then-functional Kingfisher Airlines from IOB between 2007 and 2012.
According to a chargesheet recently submitted in court by the central agency, these credit facilities were granted to the defunct private airline by the bank under a specific agreement.
In August 2010, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) instructed the State Bank of India (SBI) to review Kingfisher Airlines Ltd's (KAL) request to restructure existing facilities in the aviation sector, relaxing the relevant guidelines as a one-time measure, according to the investigative agency's document.
Consequently, a consortium of 18 banks, including IOB, restructured KAL's current credit facilities through a Master Debt Recast Agreement (MDRA), which was signed by KAL and the lenders.
The case's allegations involve false assurances, and the misuse of loans for purposes other than originally intended, as stated by the CBI.
The chargesheet alleged that the defendant deliberately and with the intention to deceive failed to repay the loans as required and caused a wrongful loss of Rs 141.91 crore due to the loan defaults.
Furthermore, the investigating agency claimed that an additional wrongful loss of Rs 38.30 crores occurred due to the conversion of loans to shares.
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