Vijay Mallya, the Indian liquor magnate offered to deposit Rs 1,590 crore with India’s top court to prove his intent to settle dues with lenders who had rejected an earlier payment proposal.
Lawyers representing the Vijay Mallya filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Thursday in response to an order to declare all his assets. Mallya informed the court that overseas assets are not taken into account while granting loans, and sought permission to file information about his assets in a sealed cover on June 26.
Reiterating his earlier stance, Mallya told the court he isn’t a “wilful defaulter” and the airline was “genuine commercial failure.”
He was doing all efforts to reach a settlement “in all sincerity” by offering to pay “to the extent possible and feasible” until the government suspended his passport and a court in Mumbai ordered a non-bailable warrant against him, the filing said.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate has approached the External Affairs Ministry demanding initiation of deportation proceedings against Mallya in connection with its money laundering investigation against him in the Rs 900 crore IDBI alleged loan fraud case.
The agency will also soon approach the Central Bureau of Investigation to get an Interpol Red Corner Notice released against Mallya to get him arrested, on the basis of the warrant issued by a Mumbai court.
Mallya is said to be in the UK after he left India on March 2.
The agency is not only probing the financial structure of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines but also investigating any payment of inducements to get loans from IDBI and examining laundering of funds to overseas destinations by the group.