Vijay Mallya case: UK High Court allows Indian banks to seize his Rs 10,000 crore assets

London : Vijay Mallya, absconding fraudster from India, lost a major lawsuit in UK court, allowing Indian banks to sell his UK assets to recover loan amount up to Rs 10,404 crore. 

The UK court verdict bars Vijay Mallya from making any changes in these assets; it also enables the banks to enforce the debt tribunal’s judgment against Mallya and make recoveries from his assets in England and Wales.

Among the parties to the litigation were the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd.

The claim relates to a judgment of the debt recovery tribunal in Karnataka, which concluded that Mallya was “liable” to pay the banks a sum of INR 62,033,503,879.42 plus interest. 

Vijay Mallya was arrested in London on April 18 on a warrant issued by Indian authorities with an accusation on him to defraud the IDBI Bank.

The UK court had earlier upheld the Indian court’s injunction and given Mallya’s lawyers more time to respond due to the ongoing extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, which is now set for a hearing on July 11.

Vijay Mallya’s lawyers refused to make any comment over the judgement.