Court orders attachment of Vijay Mallya’s properties

A Delhi court has ordered attachment of liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s properties in Bengaluru under section 83 in The Code of Criminal Procedure in connection with a FERA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act) violation case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat issued fresh directions after the Bengaluru Police, through Enforcement Directorate’s special public prosecutor N K Matta and advocate Samvedna Verma, sought more time to execute its earlier order in this regard.

According to the case registered by the Enforcement Directorate, Mallya had allegedly paid USD 200,000 to a British firm and some European countries for displaying the logo of his now defunct Kingfisher airline in Formula One World Championships in London in 1996, 1997, and 1998.

The investigating agency also claimed that the money was paid without prior approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in violation of the FERA norms.

The Bengaluru Police had earlier informed the court that it had identified 159 properties belonging to Mallya, but had not been able to attach any of them and sought more time to execute its earlier order in this regard.It had on April 12, 2017 issued an open-ended non-bailable warrant (NBW) against the liquor baron.

Unlike a non-bailable warrant, an ‘open-ended NBW’ does not carry a time limit for execution.

The next date of hearing in the matter is on July 10. Mallya was declared a proclaimed offender by the court on January 4 last year for evading its summons in the case.

Vijay Mallya had also recently questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not instructing Indian banks to take the money he has “offered” to pay off the public funds.