Vijay Mallya had asked the Supreme Court last week to treat a list of his foreign assets as confidential.
Highlights
- Mallya had said banks not entitled to know what family and he own abroad
- Mallya's foreign assets include flats in Manhattan's famous Trump Plaza
- Investigators say he used loans to buy property abroad, he denies this
Banks owed nearly a billion dollars by Vijay Mallya are entitled to details of the assets owned abroad by his family and him, the Supreme Court said today.
The 60-year-old tycoon, who has refused to return from the UK to India to face lenders, had argued that because the loans given to his Kingfisher Airlines were not based on properties and other investments he made outside India, banks had no right to seek information about them.
The Enforcement Directorate, which investigates financial crimes, has said that Mr Mallya appears to have used part of at least one loan to buy properties abroad. He has told the Supreme Court that's untrue. Last week,
NDTV reported on apartments including a penthouse that he acquired in the famous Trump Plaza in New York at the peak of his airline's financial crisis.
Mr Mallya's lawyer told the top court today that he has no information on when the liquor baron plans to come back. The government has cancelled his passport, and a Mumbai court has issued an arrest warrant for him after he ignored three orders to meet with investigators. Mr Mallya, who was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2010, is likely to be expelled from Parliament next week.
Mr Mallya had asked the Supreme Court last week to treat as confidential a list of his foreign assets, arguing that as a Non-Resident Indian or NRI, he is not obliged to disclose this information "even with tax returns".
A group of 18 banks, most of them state-run, have asked the top court to help them recover the money owed by Kingfisher Airlines, which started as a ritzy carrier in 2005, and stopped operating in 2012 amid a stockpile of debt and unpaid wages.
Repayment offers made by him through video-conferences have been rejected by banks which say he needs to negotiate with them in person, and offer more than just 6,000 crores as a first installment.