ED request: External affairs ministry initiates deportation of Vijay Mallya

New Delhi: Following the request from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to bring back Vijay Mallya back to the country, the external affairs ministry today said that it has initiated the deportation of the billionaire liquor baron. Speaking to the media, Vikas Swarup, the spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs of India said the ministry is in consultation with the legal experts for deportation request of the businessman. Armed with a non-bailable arrest warrant (NBW) against him, ED on Thursday had approached the External Affairs Ministry seeking initiation of deportation proceedings against liquor baron Vijay Mallya in connection with its money laundering probe against him in the Rs 900 crore IDBI alleged loan fraud case. [caption id=“attachment_2723812” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of Vijay Mallya. AFP[/caption] The agency had written to MEA and said it will also soon write to the CBI to get an Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN) issued against the Rajya Sabha MP to get him arrested, based on the NBW directed by a Mumbai court. Only last week, the MEA had suspended Mallya’s diplomatic passport and has sought a reply from him as to why his passport should not be revoked as the ED said the businessman was not cooperating in the probe in the said case under the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Sources said once the deportation proceedings are initiated, the MEA will seek assistance of their counterparts in the United Kingdom to interdict Mallya and fly him back to India. “The grounds for deportation are primarily two. A non-bailable warrant issued by the Mumbai court and suspension of the passport of the businessman,” they said. Mallya is understood to be in the UK after he left India on March 2. A Hyderabad court had yesterday convicted Mallya in a cheque-bouncing case filed against him by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. With the latest request for deportation, the ED has virtually deployed all legal measures in place to bring back Mallya to India and make him join investigations “in person”, which the agency had stated in a Mumbai court was essential to take the probe forward in the case. The 60-year-old industrialist has skipped three summons issued by ED in this regard in the past. He had also sought time till May to depose before agency investigators. ED has registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on an FIR registered last year by the CBI. The agency is not only investigating the financial structure of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines but also looking into any payment of kickbacks to secure loans from IDBI and probing laundering of funds to overseas destinations by the group. The agency had alleged that Mallya had siphoned off Rs 430 crore of the IDBI loan and used this money to acquire properties abroad, a charge denied by Kingfisher. With agency inputs