The Indian law shows no plans of getting off liquor baron Vijay Mallya's back as a special court in Mumbai issued a non-bailable warrant against him in the £90 million money laundering case. The court took into account the Enforcement Directorate's contention that Mallya had been served three summons and with his failure to appear before the agency, was avoiding the process of law.
The ED told the court that it suspects Mallya of having used the loan to invest in properties abroad, adding that by continuing to stay in the UK, he may destroy all evidence by alienating them. Special judge PR Bhavake, after presiding over matters under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, accepted ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar's plea saying the arrest warrant be “open dated”- meaning it would place no deadline on his arrest by the Interpol. During ED's probe the Kingfisher Airline's former CFO A Raghunathan had mentioned that the company had about 68 aircraft on lease. When asked if he knew about properties held in Mallya's name, he gave the ED a “list of assets and liability statement of Mallya”. He added, “I am not aware of any other properties.”
The warrant is an attempt to secure the baron's presence in the trial court even as his counsel Amit Desai and Pranav Badheka denied of misuse of any loan amount for personal gains or buy properties abroad. “To expect the chief financial officer Raghunathan to remember every entry made in 2009-10, the period relevant to the probe, is expecting too much. It does not constitute non-cooperation. Everyone doesn't have a photographic memory,” Desai said.
With the court issuing an NBW to get Mallya deported from the UK, Interpol can issue a red corner alert against him. If he travels to any airport in the world, he can be immediately arrested to secure his presence in the Mumbai court.
Nothing is left to chance as the Ministry of External Affairs had suspended his passport last week. Officials said the ED had written to the MEA to take action under the Passport Act, 1967, and asked the Regional Passport Office to revoke the diplomatic passport of the Rajya Sabha MP. They said Mallya has turned out to be “un-cooperative” with its investigators probing the criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
