ARJAVA MEDIA:
Banks recovered Rs 14,000 crore from Vijay Mallya while the Enforcement Directorate successfully restituted his assets to those who claimed them. Mallya took a loan of Rs 9000 crore from 19 Indian banks during 2009-2013 and ran away from India in March 2016 after realising his inescapability from fraudulent activities.
Where is Vijay Mallya, a former liquor baron and now a fugitive? The government has been trying to secure Mallya’s extradition from the United Kingdom in all possible ways. When the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last month at the G20 meeting, the concern of extradition of financial offenders came up.
Vijay Mallya ran away from India on March 2, 2016, to escape investigations of the Enforcement Directorate and penal action by the Income Tax Department
after fraudulently taking a loan of Rs 9000 crore from 17 banks. Mallya took a loan to find his plan to buy stakes in foreign companies and increase his stakes in companies where he had stakes. After Mallya understood that there was no space for a negotiated settlement and scuttle criminal investigation leaving India was the only option to escape arrest.
In the past, there were many such frauds. However, in most frauds, fraudsters could find escape routes through law and political proximity provisions. Mallya had secured most of his loans from banks through political influence between 2009 and 2014. However, the derelict borrowers began to face unexpectedly tough action after 2014 and legislation like the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 (IBC 2016) gave the lenders sharper teeth to recover their assets within the time frame. Of the total loans, the banks could already recover Rs 14,000 crore including interest on their assets by liquidating Mallay’s assets. Enforcement Directorate restituted assets worth Rs 22,280 crore to those who lost in Vijay Mallya’s fraudulent deal. Mallay’s escape from India has not been his escape from repayment liabilities and fraudulent activities. This is changing India’s warning to all the dishonest businessmen, who deceived banks and the government.
