The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its supplementary chargesheet filed in a Mumbai court has said that beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya had enough funds with him to repay banks before he fled but used that money to buy properties abroad instead.
The CBI in its supplementary chargesheet said Vijay Mallya bought properties worth Rs 330 crore in England and France during 2015-16 even as his Kingfisher Airlines was in crisis. The CBI chargesheet said banks had not recovered the loans defaulted by the liquor baron at that time.
Vijay Mallya is an accused in the alleged over Rs 900 crore IDBI Bank-Kingfisher Airlines loan fraud case being probed by the CBI, which filed a supplementary chargesheet before a special CBI court in Mumbai.
The name of the former general manager of IDBI Bank, Buddhadev Dasgupta, was added to the supplementary chargesheet along with all the 11 accused named in the earlier chargesheets.
CBI alleged that by abusing his official position, former IDBI GM Buddhadev Dasgupta conspired with the officers of the bank and Vijay Mallya in the matter of sanction and disbursement of the short-term loan (STL) of Rs 150 crore in October 2009, a news agency PTI report mentioned.
The loan in question of Rs 150 crore as envisaged originally by Dasgupta (by proposal circulated among credit committee members) was to be adjusted/repaid from the aggregate loan of Rs 750 crore originally sought by the airlines.
However, after circulation, there was a change in the proposal to show as if the credit committee had treated this as a separate loan, which may (or may not) be adjusted/recovered from the aggregate loan, the CBI chargesheet said.
The charge sheet said the exposure of IDBI Bank was to be restricted to the aggregate amount of Rs 750 crore, but it became Rs 900 crore in December 2009 because the STL of Rs 150 crore was kept as a separate loan, largely at the behest of Dasgupta.
Letters rogatory (LRs) had been sent to the United Kingdom, Mauritius, the USA and Switzerland as per the permission of the CBI court during the course of the investigation.
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Courts of one country seek the assistance of the courts in another for the administration of justice there through letters or rogatory.
The charge sheet said the evidence was collected during a foreign investigation from these countries.
“The properties in the UK (Ladywalk in 2015-16 for GBP 12-13 million or Rs 80 crore) and France (‘Le Grand Jardin’ in 2008 for Euro 35 million or Rs 250 crore approximately) were acquired by Mallya even as Kingfisher Airlines was facing severe a cash crunch (2008) and the lenders were yet to recover the loans defaulted upon by Mallya and the Airlines (2015-16)," the PTI report quoted lines from the charge sheet.
Mallya had adequate funds, didn’t use them to support airlines: CBI
The chargesheet claimed that Vijay Mallya had adequate funds available with him between 2008 and 2016-17, but none of it was brought to support the airlines as equity infusion or to honour his obligations as a personal guarantor for the loans availed by KAL from IDBI and other banks in India.
The charge sheet, citing the evidence collected through LRs, said that sizable amounts were transferred to Force India Formula 1 Team between 2008 and 2012.
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The charge sheet further said that significant amounts were diverted from 2007 to 2012-13 and used to make payments towards the acquisition and repayment of the loan for the corporate jet used personally by Mallya.
Besides the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing a money laundering case against Mallya. On January 5, 2019, a special court in Mumbai declared Mallya a ‘fugitive’.
Under the provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, the prosecuting agency has the power to confiscate a person’s property once he/she is declared a fugitive economic offender.
This article first appeared on News18.com here.
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