Vijay Mallya has asked for time till April in a letter sent to the Enforcement Directorate, which investigates financial crimes.
Mumbai:
Vijay Mallya, wanted in India by banks to whom his Kingfisher Airlines owes nearly a billion dollars, will not comply with an order to meet investigators in Mumbai tomorrow. The liquor baron has asked for time till April in a letter sent to the Enforcement Directorate, which investigates financial crimes.
Mr Mallya, 60, flew first class to London from Delhi earlier this month; his departure was revealed by the centre after banks asked the Supreme Court to suspend his passport so that he is forced to remain in the country.
Mr Mallya has tweeted that he is not absconding and will follow all laws, stressing that he is a member of the Rajya Sabha. Though he has not disclosed his whereabouts, he has been seen in the Hertfordshire village where he owns a mansion called "Ladywalk" which he bought for a reported 16 million dollars a few years ago from the family of racing champion Lewis Hamilton. Mr Mallya himself owns Force One, the Indian Forumla One racing team.
His refusal to fly back indicates that the government will have to push hard to ensure his return. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today that at the India Today Conclave that banks will "strive to recover every penny" they are owed. Just why exactly banks, many of them state-run, kept heaping large loans upon Mr Mallya despite the obvious financial distress of his Kingfisher Airlines is now being examined by the CBI.
The Enforcement Directorate wanted to question him in Mumbai about whether he siphoned abroad a substantial chunk of a 900-crore loan given to him in 2009 by state-run IDBI. Top sources in the CBI said their inquiry has scaled up to include the possible collusion of banks with Mr Mallya in financial violations. The CBI says early assessments of nearly 6 lakh financial transactions involving Mr Mallya show nearly 60 per cent of those moves saw him sending money- including parts of loans -to foreign countries.
Mr Mallya, whose vast fortune is based partly on his ownership of Kingfisher beer, set up Kingfisher Airlines in 2003 as a new luxury airline for Indians. It was grounded in 2012 amid unpaid debts and wages.
Mr Mallya, 60, flew first class to London from Delhi earlier this month; his departure was revealed by the centre after banks asked the Supreme Court to suspend his passport so that he is forced to remain in the country.
Mr Mallya has tweeted that he is not absconding and will follow all laws, stressing that he is a member of the Rajya Sabha. Though he has not disclosed his whereabouts, he has been seen in the Hertfordshire village where he owns a mansion called "Ladywalk" which he bought for a reported 16 million dollars a few years ago from the family of racing champion Lewis Hamilton. Mr Mallya himself owns Force One, the Indian Forumla One racing team.
His refusal to fly back indicates that the government will have to push hard to ensure his return. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today that at the India Today Conclave that banks will "strive to recover every penny" they are owed. Just why exactly banks, many of them state-run, kept heaping large loans upon Mr Mallya despite the obvious financial distress of his Kingfisher Airlines is now being examined by the CBI.
The Enforcement Directorate wanted to question him in Mumbai about whether he siphoned abroad a substantial chunk of a 900-crore loan given to him in 2009 by state-run IDBI. Top sources in the CBI said their inquiry has scaled up to include the possible collusion of banks with Mr Mallya in financial violations. The CBI says early assessments of nearly 6 lakh financial transactions involving Mr Mallya show nearly 60 per cent of those moves saw him sending money- including parts of loans -to foreign countries.
Mr Mallya, whose vast fortune is based partly on his ownership of Kingfisher beer, set up Kingfisher Airlines in 2003 as a new luxury airline for Indians. It was grounded in 2012 amid unpaid debts and wages.
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