Fresh blow to Vijay Mallya as SEBI bars fugitive liquor baron from securities trading for 3 years

The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Friday barred fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya from trading in India’s securities market and from associating with any listed firm for three years, Reuters reported.

SEBI said that Mallya’s “existing holding of securities including the holding of units of mutual funds… shall remain frozen”.

The 68-year-old businessman owns an 8.1% stake in Kingfisher beer-maker United Breweries, per exchange data, and is the company’s chairman. He also owns a 0.01% stake in Smirnoff vodka-maker United Spirits.

Mallya is accused of a bank loan default case worth ₹9,000 crore involving his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. He was declared a Fugitive Economic Offender in 2019 by a special court for cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Mallya had left India in March 2016 and now lives in the United Kingdom.

On July 1, a special CBI court in Mumbai issued a non-bailable warrant against him in a ₹180 crore loan default case linked to the Indian Overseas Bank, PTI reported.

The CBI, probing the case, has alleged that Vijay Mallya caused a wrongful loss of more than ₹180 crore to the government-run bank by “wilfully” defaulting in payments.

The warrant was related to a cheating case registered by the CBI for alleged diversion of loans availed by the then-operational Kingfisher Airlines from IOB between 2007 and 2012. As per a chargesheet filed in the case in the court recently by the central agency, these credit facilities were issued to the grounded private carrier by the bank under an agreement.

In May this year, external affairs minister S Jaishankar had said that India strongly presented its case related to the extradition of fugitive economic offenders who fled the country.

“That is a question which mostly we need to ask the UK because that’s where the high profile people have gone. And we have presented our case strongly. As you can see, multiple rounds of legal proceedings have gone in our favour”, the minister told ANI. He had said that UK needed to take a “responsible view” of the matter.

Jaishankar was asked why is the extradition process so complicated before subsequently making them go through the Indian judicial process.

“And I think it is incumbent on the authorities (there) to take a responsible view of it. There’s a reputational implication for them. I mean, they will end up being seen as a haven for tax evaders and tax defaulters,” he further said.