Two different courts here on Friday issued non-bailable warrants (NBW) against industrialist Vijay Mallya in two different cases.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Sumit Dass issued a warrant against him in a Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) violation case of 1995, while Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand issued the second one in four cheque bounce cases of 2012.
In the FERA violation case, the court issued the warrant when Mallya’s counsel, Ramesh Gupta, said he would not file any reply to the application by the Enforcement Directorate in which the investigating agency had suggested that Mr. Mallya could visit India by getting an ‘Emergency Certificate’ from the Indian High Commission in the United Kingdom.
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“Mr. Mallya’s plea that he was handicapped for want of passport and could not travel to India clearly showed that it was laced with mala fide and was an abuse of the process of law. It appears that the accused has no regard for the law of the land and has no intention to return. In these circumstances, I am of the opinion that coercive steps need to be taken against the accused,” the CMM observed while issuing the warrant.
The court issued the warrant for December 22 as Mr. Mallya failed to appear on its summons.
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Mr. Mallya has been staying in London as a Permanent Resident for nearly three decades.
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The FERA case involves charges of allegedly entering into an agreement with the London-based company Benetton Formula Limited in 1995 for advertisement of Kingfisher brand on racing cars without taking the prior permission of the Reserve Bank of India.
In the cheque bounce cases, the Magistrate issued the warrant second time for February 4 as Mr. Mallya failed to appear on the first warrant issued in August this year.
The cheque bounce cases have been filed by the Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL), which operates Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the Capital.
The grounded Kingfisher Airlines Limited had issued four cheques totalling Rs. 7.5 crore in favour of the DIAL for services at the IGIA. All the cheques had bounced on presentation, the DIAL complaint said. Mr. Mallya was then chairman-cum-managing director of the airline.
In its complaints, the DIAL named Kingfisher Airlines Limited, Sanjay Aggarwal (chief executive officer), A. Raghunathan (chief financial officer), Inder Singh (authorised signatory) and G. Visweswaran (authorszed signatory) as accused. The court had taken cognisance of the complaints on June 22, 2012.