Assets worth ₹19,111 cr of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi attached

The government on Tuesday said assets worth ₹19,111 crore relating to fugitives Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, have been attached so far.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said that the three fugitives have defrauded public sector banks by siphoning off funds through their companies resulting in total loss of ₹22,585.83 crore to the lenders.

"... as on March 15, 2022, assets worth ₹19,111.20 crore have been attached under the provisions of PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act)," he said.

Out of ₹19,111.20 crore, assets worth ₹15,113.91 crore has been restituted to the public sector banks. In addition, the minister said assets worth ₹335.06 crore have been confiscated to Government of India.

Earlier, the Centre had informed the Supreme Court that ₹18,000 crore have returned to banks from Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi.

Mallya is wanted in India to face fraud and money laundering charges and remains on bail in the UK while a “confidential" legal process is completed.

After his extradition to India was ordered by the UK government in February 2019, Mallya went on to exhaust all legal avenues to contest the order in British courts. The businessman is now believed to be relying on an application seeking political asylum in the UK.

While Mallya owes over ₹9,000 crore to a consortium of banks in principal and interest, diamantaires Nirav Modi and Choksi, who are the main accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case, have caused losses worth ₹13,000 crore to the bank.