The government has cracked the whip on liquor baron and lawmaker Vijay Mallya by suspending his diplomatic passport after a request from the Enforcement Directorate or ED which is probing alleged non-repayment of loans by him.
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The banks, a lot of them state-owned, had approached India’s apex court in February this year to stop Mallya from leaving the country but by then the embattled once known as the “King of Good Times” had flown out of the country. The ED has registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on an FIR registered past year by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had on April 13 sought revocation of Mallya’s diplomatic passport by the Regional Passport Office (RPO). The business also informed ED investigators that he will be unable to depose in the case personally as he also had legal proceedings in the Supreme Court over settlement of a loans case.
The lawyer added that all summons were issued under Section 15 of PMLA Act and they were sent to seek accused’s presence for investigation.
1 Liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s diplomatic passport stands suspended for four weeks.
He was supposed to appear before the agency on March 18th and April 2nd, but he sought for an extension each time and the agency had to issue a fresh summons for April 9, which was also flouted by the billionaire. According to a government official, Mallya is deliberately avoiding a personal appearance despite a statutory requirement. Modi, at his address to a gathering of the Indian Diaspora in Belgium late last month, warned Mallya by saying that “no one who has looted money from Indian banks will be spared”. The businessman, who not so long ago was the toast of the political circuit, also got his loans restructured, seemingly at the cost of banks, under the previous dispensation. Sources said against this background, the ED moved the MEA for revocation of his passport.
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Mr. Mallya has thrice failed to appear before the ED IO in Mumbai in connection with the IDBI loan fraud case.
