Today the Supreme Court found troubled liquor baron Mr. Vijay Mallya guilty of contempt and SC asked him to appear personally before the court on 10th July. An order expected to help the case of India to seek Mallya’s extradition from the UK. A day after SC held that loan defaulters must be dealt with iron hands, it convicted absconder industrialist Mr. Mallya for contempt of court. A bench of two Justices, Mr. AK Goel and Mr. UU Lalit held him guilty on two grounds. They directed him to personally appear before the court and the court will decide the quantum of punishment to be awarded to Vijay Mallya.
The money is owed by his Kingfisher Airlines that was grounded in the year, 2012. The quantum of punishment to be awarded will be decided after hearing him. The businessman, who called himself king of good times, faces at least 6 months in jail. The banks moved the court after Vijay Mallya transferred around $40 million dollars he received from London-based enterprise Diageo Plc in 2016 to his 3 children instead of repaying the loan. The money was received towards the 75-million dollars debt settlement with Diageo Plc following his resignation as chairman of United Spirits Pvt. Ltd.
The court said that Vijay Mallya hid details of his all transaction with Diageo when he filed an affidavit sharing all the details of his movable and immovable assets. He also failed to obey the order of the court to appear before it. The court passed the order on a contempt plea filed by an association of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) which sought action against Mallya for allegedly diverting $40 million dollars to his children’s accounts in violation of the court order.
The Supreme Court (SC) started proceeding against absconder Vijay Mallya and also issued a notice to him on 8th March 2016 on the plea by banks for recovery of about 9 thousand crore rupees which Mallya and his companies owed to them. However, he managed to flee the country days before Supreme Court (SC) took up the case against absconder industrialist Mallya.
Pleading the Supreme Court to direct the businessman to bring back 40 million dollars, which he received from Diageo, Attorney General had told the bench that Vijay Mallya had breached the SC’s order and the refusal to bring back the mentioned money had aggravated his breach and he should be asked to appear personally before the Supreme Court (SC).
Attorney General Mr. Mukul Rohatgi also said.”He has considered the court to take a ride and we are taking action to bring him back. He has not made any honest disclosure regarding 40 million dollars. We don’t know how to get back the money but it is very important to obey the rules of the court and he must abide by court’s order”.
