Banks have no claim on overseas assets, says Mallya

He expects the Supreme Court to offer some sort of immunity to Mallya from arrest as long as he cooperates with Indian authorities.Below is the verbatim transcript of Gopal Jain’s interview with CNBC-TV18's Kritika Saxena. Q: Does his argument with respect to not having any obligation to disclose his overseas asset have any meat in it and more importantly would this in any way impact ED's case of the non-bailable warrant and trying to deport him back to India? Gopal Jain: The most important thing we have to do a reality check and your response has to measure up to the situation. Now there are several court proceedings pending including in the Supreme Court. There are significant amount of money which you owe to banks and institutions in India. Many of them have been earned out of businesses in India, you have taken the loans in India. So, you do have a legal responsibility to discharge them or in any instance to come up with a proper mechanism towards settlements. So, this approach looks more evasive as if to say that look, I may be a defaulter, I may have taken loans but I am making sure that the assets which I have abroad I am going to insulate it from these proceedings. I don't think it is a step in the right direction given the overall context, the fact that the courts have issued summons. So, cooperation and intent is most important at the moment. Q: A token amount has been offered of Rs 1,591 crore as a gesture to be deposited to the Supreme Court, but it’s still very conspicuous as to how this will work and when he will come in and do you think that his argument that banks do not have any right over his overseas assets holds any meet whatsoever? Hitesh Jain: I think it’s a very frivolous technical plea on which he is relying. See under the Income Tax Act for the taxation purpose one can understand that the NRI did not disclose his foreign assets and bank account, but that is for the purposes of provision under the Income Tax Act. Here when the banks have filed the proceedings; these are the proceedings for the recovery of money and when there is a charge of fraud and siphoning of assets then perhaps he will not be able to get the benefit of the plea under the Income Tax Act which is available to the non-resident Indian and that is purely restricted only for the purpose of whether your income is taxable and from that perspective whether the foreign assets should be disclosed or not, that is one. Second, I have always maintained that this whole tactics of offering Rs 4,000 crore now offering Rs 1,591 crore; I do not have the benefit of reading the affidavit, but if he has offered this money without any conditions attached and unconditionally if he is offering this money and then he wants to cooperate in the investigations that is altogether a separate question. But if you simply for the sake of placing on record you just maintain that okay I am ready to deposit but without giving details as to when the money is going to coming, whether it is subject to certain conditions and all. That means he is again trying to take the advantages, he is just creating some excuse one excuse or another to avoid joining the probe and to avoid the co-operation of investigation and then play a card of victim that I was ready to pay and all the authorities and bank they are taking a high-handed action against him. So, overall if you will see the approach in the affidavit there is no co-operation forthcoming and one will have to look at the affidavit, this plea which has been taken about for NRI disclosure not required, I don’t think that is going to ply with the court.