Rs 3,600 crore recovered from Vijay Mallya, SBI-led consortium of banks tells Supreme Court

File image: Vijay Mallya

The State Bank of India (SBI)-led consortium of banks told the Supreme Court on October 26 that around Rs 3,600 crore had been recovered from fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya so far.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the SBI-led banks consortium, also informed the apex court that Rs 11,000 crore were still needed to be recovered from Mallya, The Times of India reported.

The top court dismissed a petition filed by Mallya's United Breweries Holdings Limited (UBHL) challenging a Karnataka High Court order upholding the closing of the company for recovery of dues payable by Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, news reports suggest.

Rohatgi argued that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) should not have attached the company’s properties as these were encumbered assets and thus, the banks had the first claim over the assets.

Mallya is wanted back in India under charges of financial fraud. He defaulted on repayment of loans taken by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines from several Indian banks. In January 2019, a special Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA) court had declared him a 'fugitive economic offender'.

He has been based in the United Kingdom since March 2016 and is currently on bail for an extradition warrant executed three years ago by the Scotland Yard.

Earlier, the Centre informed the Supreme Court that the extradition order to bring the fugitive liquor baron back to India had not been come into effect, and it was unaware of any "secret" proceedings that were delaying the process.

A bench comprising Justices UU Lalit and Ashok Bhushan asked Mallya’s lawyer to inform the court what kind of "secret" proceedings were going on to delay his extradition.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) later said it was in constant touch with the UK court and that Mallya’s extradition had been halted due to an unresolved legal matter.