Vijay Mallya extradition case: SC to hear liquor baron’s plea challenging confiscation of properties on 2 August

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on Friday the plea of fugitive economic offender Vijay Mallya challenging the confiscation of properties belonging to the companies owned by him and his family members. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took note of the submission of F S Nariman, appearing for Mallya, that the fresh plea be heard along with the pending one on the legality of the law and the action to confiscate the properties.

Supreme Court adjourns fugitive Vijay Mallya's petition to Friday, August 02. He had, on Saturday, moved the Supreme Court seeking its direction of stay on confiscation of all properties owned by him and his relatives. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/6zxhqzvy0Z

— ANI (@ANI) July 29, 2019

The senior lawyer sought adjournment of hearing on the petition questioning the confiscation of properties. The bench has now posted the matter for hearing on 2 August. [caption id=“attachment_6028671” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Vijay Mallya. PTI[/caption] Mallya, who is currently in the UK, has been charged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of defaulting on bank loans to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore. He is also facing an extradition trial in the UK. On Saturday, Mallya moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the confiscation of properties owned by him and his relatives. In his plea, Mallya has said that he wanted attachment of only those properties related to Kingfisher Airlines facing cases of alleged irregularities. On July 18, Mallya’s appeal in the UK High Court against his extradition order had been listed for a three-day hearing from 11 February next year, the UK court said. The 63-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss had won a reprieve earlier in July when a two-judge panel at the Royal Courts of Justice in London granted him permission to appeal against the extradition order of a lower court to face fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an alleged Rs 9,000 crores in India. In April this year, Mallya had failed to convince a UK High Court to dismiss an order related to money in one of his London bank accounts, dealing a blow to the embattled liquor tycoon’s efforts to prevent a consortium of Indian banks getting access to nearly 260,000 pounds. In one of the many legal cases being faced by the 63-year-old liquor tycoon in the UK, Master David Cook ruled that an interim debt order in favour of State Bank of India (SBI) and other banks seeking access to funds in the ICICI UK bank account “should remain in force” but that the application to make it final should be adjourned until after the hearing of Mallya’s pending bankruptcy petition. — With PTI inputs