Fugitive Mallya suffered a major setback, lawyer refused to fight the case in the Supreme Court of India
The lawyer of London-residing fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya on Thursday told the Supreme Court of India that he was not receiving any communication from him and sought to be discharged from the case as a counsel. The bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli allowed the discharge of advocate E C Agrawala from the case and asked him to furnish the e-mail ID of the liquor baron along with his present residential address in the United Kingdom to the apex court registry.
The lawyer was relinquishing cases he handled for Mallya, currently living in London since 2016, facing an extradition case to India. Agrawala told the top court, “I want to be discharged from this matter as I am not receiving any instructions from my client. I am not able to establish contact with him. He is incommunicado for a long time.”
The top court discharged the lawyer from the two petitions filed by Mallya (66) against the October 5, 2018, and September 13, 2019 orders of the Karnataka High Court directing him to pay Rs.3,101 crore to a consortium of banks. In another case, on July 11, the top court sentenced Mallya to four months in jail for contempt of court and directed the Centre to secure the presence of the fugitive businessman who has been in the United Kingdom since 2016 to undergo imprisonment.
The top court had said Mallya who became a defaulter of banks for more than Rs.9,000 crores never showed any remorse nor tendered any apology for his conduct and adequate punishment must be imposed to maintain the majesty of the law. The top court had also imposed a fine of Rs.2,000 on Mallya, who was held guilty of committing contempt of court by the top court on May 9, 2017, for transferring USD 40 million to his children in violation of court orders.
The top court had directed that Mallya and the beneficiaries under the said transactions relating to USD 40 million shall be bound to deposit the amount received along with interest at the rate of eight percent per annum with the recovery officer concerned within four weeks. It had said in case the amount is not deposited, the recovery officer concerned shall be entitled to take appropriate proceedings for recovery of money and the Government of India and all agencies concerned shall extend assistance and complete cooperation.
The fugitive Vijay Mallya who was active on Twitter, nowadays Tweeting only on Festival days. His last Tweet was on October 22:
Shubh Dhanteras to all
— Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) October 22, 2022
Mallya is an accused in a bank loan default matter of over Rs.9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines. He is living in the United Kingdom since March 2016. He is on bail on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017. A consortium of lending banks led by the State Bank of India had moved the apex court alleging that Mallya was not following the court orders on repayment of the loan which was then over Rs.9,000 crore. Mallya’s extradition case is now before British Home Secretary for the past two years, after he lost cases in all courts.
PGurus is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with all the latest news and views
For all the latest updates, download PGurus App.
- Supreme Court rejects plea to tally all VVPAT slips with EVM votes; says ‘no going back to paper ballot’ - April 26, 2024
- US report citing human rights violations is deeply biased: India - April 25, 2024
- Kotak Mahindra Bank shares tank 13%. Market Cap erodes by Rs.37,721 cr post-RBI action - April 25, 2024
NO chance of any action. He knows and can speak about the calendar girls supplied to the powers that be across all spectrums.
This is of course besides the excise avoidance to pay local governments.