BANK LOANS TO LOW NET WORTH PERSONS: A PUNISHABLE OFFENCE (CONTD.)

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had, earlier on 31^st January 2017, filed an affidavit before a special CBI Court seeking the extradition of Vijay Mallya, the promoter of now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, from the United Kingdom (UK) where he had been residing since March 2016. By virtue of the Extradition Treaty signed by India with the UK in 1993, the Indian Government has handed over a formal request of extradition of Mr. Vijay Vittal Mallya as received from the CBI to the U.K. High Commission in New Delhi on 9^th February 2017.

The Special Court for CBI cases has heard the bail applications of the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) officials who were arrested on 23^rd January 2017 for sanctioning and disbursing loan of Rs 1,300 crore to Kingfisher Airlines, a low credit rated company. It has refused to grant bail, on 10^th February 2017, to Yogesh Aggarwal (former CMD of IDBI Bank), A Raghunathan (former CFO of Kingfisher Airlines) and B K Batra (Deputy Managing Director of the IDBI) on the grounds that they have been involved, since the beginning, in applying, processing, facilitating and sanctioning of such loan. However, it has granted bail to the IDBI executives O V Bundellu, S K V Srinivasan, R S Sridhar, and the Kingfisher executives Shailesh Borke, A C Shah and Amit Nadkarni on bonds of Rs 50,000 subject to several conditions.

Meanwhile, Vijay Mallya, pending his extradition from the UK, remains a wanted accused in the Kingfisher Airlines-bank loan default case. Earlier, when the Indian Government had made a deportation request, with regard to Vijay Mallya, to the UK, the latter had responded saying that India’s deportation request was not covered by the UK laws as their laws permitted visitors to stay back even if their passport wasn’t valid any longer.

Daliparthy Harini

Legal Associate

The Indian Lawyer