Fugitive tycoon Vijay Mallya challenges Indian authorities over £700m asset seizures

In a bizarre reversal of roles, Vijay Mallya, the fugitive former head of India’s United Breweries and United Spirits, is attempting to force India’s financial authorities to repay him almost £700 million.

Mallya (pictured) has been convicted in absentia of fraud and money laundering related to the collapse of his Kingfisher Airlines back in 2012. He fled to Britain in 2016 and has exhausted all legal avenues in England to avoid extradition to India.

He remains living in his luxury Regents Park mansion and on his estate at Tewin, Hertfordshire, while a “confidential legal matter” remains unresolved. This is thought to be a plea for political asylum which has now been under consideration for almost four years.

Mallya says a consortium of Indian banks have recovered Rs 14,131.60 crore (£1.413 billion) from him through the seizure and sale of assets in India despite the court-ordered debt being just Rs 6,203 crore. 

He is now challenging the legal justification behind the seizure of more than double the amount of the original debt.

In a social media post, Mallya highlighted the ruling by the Debt Recovery Tribunal, which had set the debt owed by his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) at Rs 6,203 crore, including Rs 1,200 crore in interest. 

He also highlighted Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent announcement in the Delhi parliament, which confirmed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and banks had recovered Rs 14,131.60 crore from him.

Repayment demands

Mallya claims that unless the ED and banks can provide a legal justification for recovering more than twice the debt amount, he is entitled to relief, which he intends to pursue.

Earlier this week Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman detailed the ED’s actions in recovering assets linked to economic offences. 

She informed parliament that the ED had restored assets worth Rs 22,280 crore from various offenders including the Rs 14,131.6 crore worth of assets from Mallya, which have been returned to public sector banks.

Separately Mallya is being pursued by Diageo and its Indian subsidiary United Spirits for recovery of sums paid to him when he sold UB to the British spirits giant. Together with payments incurred by Diageo to meet unpaid debts and unauthorised transactions, these are thought to total more than £250 million.

Diageo has won a partial judgement in London under which Mallya is required to repay about half those monies but to date, he has failed to do so.

Civil actions in both London and India continue.

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