Vijay Mallya in Trouble Again! UK High Court Tells the Businessman To Pay 200,000 Pounds To Indian Banks

London, June 16: Liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya has got into trouble again after a United Kingdom court asked the businessman to pay 13 Indian banks a minimum of Rs 1.8 crore in legal fees by July 5 to recover alleged dues. It was on May 10 that a UK court had said that he can be regarded as a “fugitive from justice”. For the unversed, Mallya is accused of willfully defaulting on about $1.4 billion (Rs 9,380 crore) in loans for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

According to a report by PTI, in May Judge Andrew Henshaw had refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya's assets and upheld an Indian court's ruling that a consortium of 13 Indian banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) were entitled to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds.

Reports inform that as part of the judgment, the court has also ordered the 62-year old businessman to pay costs towards registration of the worldwide freezing order and of the Debt Recovery Tribunal of Karnataka's judgment in Britain.

In a high court ruling dated May 8, Judge Henshaw had refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya's assets and upheld an Indian court's ruling that the consortium of 13 Indian banks - State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd - were entitled to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds.

To recall, the former Kingfisher Airlines boss remains on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) believes it has successfully established a prima facie case of fraud against the businessman and that there are no bars to his extradition to face the courts in India.

Mallya is also separately fighting extradition to India on fraud and money laundering charges worth an estimated Rs. 9,000 crores, has since filed an appeal notice at the Court of Appeal, which includes an application for permission to appeal. Reports by PTI inform that the permission will only be granted if the court considers that the appeal would have a real prospect of success or there is some other compelling reason for the appeal to be heard.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 16, 2018 09:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).