Ahead of the crucial extradition hearing in London, the former king of good times Vijay Mallya dismissed allegations of money laundering and said that he had offered a settlement to bankers. Arriving at the Westminster court this afternoon in London Vijay Mallya told reporters, “Allegations of money laundering & stealing money are completely false. I offered the court to seize my property to pay back loan. I gave a settlement offer.”
Notably, the liquor baron is facing extradition charges for trial in money laundering case worth nearly Rs 9,000 crore, and appeared for closing arguments today. Notably, today is the final hearing in the case and the judge is likely to set a timeline in the high-profile case. Earlier, a joint team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) had left to the United Kingdom to represent the case in the Westminster Magistrates’ court.
Earlier this month, in a big setback to Vijay Mallya, a UK High Court judge had issued an enforcement order granting permission to seize his properties in Hertfordshire, near London, PTI reported. The UK ruled in favour of a consortium of 13 Indian banks that sought to recover funds owed to them by, a whopping Rs 9,000 crore.
Vijay Mallya late last month claimed that he wanted to sell its India assets worth about Rs 139 billion to repay creditors including PSBs. Meanwhile, the ED made its first official move to clampdown against big bank loan defaulters as it moved court against Vijay Mallya seeking to declare him a ‘fugitive offender’ and to confiscate his assets worth Rs 12,500 crore.
Notably, come August 27, and a special court in Mumbai has scheduled hearing against Vijay Mallya to decide whether the former liquor baron can be tagged a “fugitive economic offender” under the new law passed by Parliament.
