Mallya loses property where he entertained thousands of people.
By Sreeekanth A. Nair
As the Indian government is moving to bring liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is living in England now, back to India, the banks that provided loans to his companies are initiating steps to recover their dues.
North Goa district authorities allowed the banks to take physical possession of Mallya’s ‘Kingfisher Villa’ in Candolim, reported The Indian Express.
“The North Goa Collector has given an order in favor of banks to take physical possession of the Kingfisher Villa,” a bank official told Indian Express.
Kingfisher Villa was the center of Mallya’s activities in Goa where he conducted many parties.
United Spirits, one of the companies owned by Mallya, however, didn’t object to the collector’s move to allow the lenders to take possession of the property. But, other companies of Mallya, United Spirits Limited (USL), Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries raised objection.
USL had blocked the banks’ move to take possession of the building several times and it had approached a local court. But the consortium of banks headed by State Bank of India got the permission to take over the villa after it approached the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court. The court had granted three months time to the collector for completing the procedures.
North Goa Collector Nila Mohanan said on Thursday that all arrangements will be made to complete the procedures smoothly.
Mallya had mortgaged the villa to the bank for availing a loan for the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Last week, Mallya made an attempt to prevent the banks from taking possession of the villa by appointing an employee as the caretaker.
Mallya owes about Rupees 9400 crore to 17 Indian banks. Mallya reportedly left Indian on March 2 and failed to show up before the probe agency on April 9, despite receiving a summons sent by ED three times.
He had offered to pay Rupees 6800 crores to settle the dues of 9400 crores. The government of India in April revoked the passport of Vijay Mallya after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) requested the Passport office in Delhi to revoke the passport of the chairman of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
The Government of India has requested the British government to deport Mallya citing the he didn’t have a valid passport. But the British Government informed its Indian counterpart that it is not possible to deport him according to British law and requested to start the procedures for extradition.