ED attaches Vijay Mallya’s assets worth Rs6,630 crore

Mumbai: In a fresh round of action against Vijay Mallya, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday attached properties worth Rs6,630 crore in connection with its money laundering probe.

On its official Twitter handle the investigative agency said, “ED attaches further properties worth Rs6,630 Crores (Mkt Value) of Vijay Mallya in bank fraud case . Total attachment now is Rs8,044 Cr.”

Mint had reported on 17 August that ED has identified properties over Rs6,000 crore for attachment.

As per an ED official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the investigative agency attached Vijay Mallya’s property at Mandwa, Bangalore and shares of United Breweries Limited (UBHL) and United Spirits Ltd.

“ED has attached properties of worth Rs4,234.84 crore today which includes Mandwa Farm House, Alibaugh (Rs25 crore), Flats in Kingfisher Tower, Banglore (Rs565 crore), fixed deposits of Dr. Vijay Mallya with HDFC ( Rs10 crore), shares of USL,UBL and Macdowell Holding Co. held by Vijay Mallya/ UBHL and his controlled entities( Rs3,635 crore),” said ED in a press statement.

“The valuation of the said properties and shares is based on their value in 2010. The attachment is on the basis of the fresh case filed against Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines ltd (KFA),” said the ED official.

The current valuation of the properties is Rs6,630 crore.

Mint report on 17 August said that, ‘ED’s new case will enable the investigative agency to attach more personal properties of Mallya, who has been labelled as a so-called proclaimed offender by a special money laundering court.’

Enforcement Directorate, Mumbai had registered a fresh case against Vijay Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (KAL), UBHL and others under Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA 2002 based on the complaint filed by the consortium of 13 banks with CBI. The banks had approached CBI with a complaint against the three entities that they cheated the 13 banks which led to a wrongful loss of Rs6,027 crore.

Earlier ED had registered a money laundering case against Mallya and KAL and its CFO in Januaru 2016 in matter of IDBI Loan of Rs750 Crore.

In the press statement ED said that it has identified huge immovable and movable properties of Vijay Mallya and UBHL and other entities being controlled by Mallya.

“The funds so obtained by KAL (read KFA) are nothing but the proceeds generated out of criminal activity related to the scheduled offence under PMLA and utilized projecting as untainted money. Hence, these are Proceeds Of Crime (POC) and the same are involved in money laundering,” said ED in the press statement.

“Huge no. of shares were also being held in the name of various other group companies controlled directly or indirectly by Dr. Vijay Mallya. Hence it appeared that even though sufficient funds were available with the promoters of KAL viz. Dr. Vijay Mallya and UBHL, they had no intention to make payment towards the bank loans from the consortium banks,” the ED alleged.