A special court here on Wednesday ordered the arrest of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya for his alleged involvement in a case of money laundering and cheating a consortium of banks of over ₹6,000 crore.
Special Judge M.S. Azmi issued a non-bailable warrant for Mr. Mallya’s arrest, taking cognisance of a fresh charge sheet filed against him and others by the Enforcement Directorate.
The court also issued summons to Mr. Mallya’s firms, Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) and United Breweries Holdings Ltd. (UBHL), before adjourning the hearing to July 30.
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The agency has filed the charge sheet under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, naming Mr. Mallya, his firms KFA and UBHL besides others. The ED had last year filed its first charge sheet against Mr. Mallya, now in London, in the alleged ₹ 900-crore IDBI Bank-Kingfisher Airlines loan fraud case.
The fresh charge sheet revolves around the complaint received from the State Bank of India on behalf of the consortium of banks for causing a loss of ₹ 6,027 crore to them by not keeping repayment commitments of the loans taken during 2005-10.