Vijay Mallya had enough money in 2008-17 to repay banks, but bought assets in Europe: CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in a supplementary chargesheet against liquor baron Vijay Mallya, said that he had enough money between 2008-17 to repay the loans he had taken from the banks but chose to buy assets across Europe instead. The loans were taken for his company, Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya, besides buying assets in Europe, also transferred money to his children’s trust in Switzerland. 

Vijay Mallya had trusts in the names of his children Siddharth, Leana and Tanya but he controlled the trusts himself. 

The CBI had sent out communiques to multiple countries seeking details of his transactions there. They found out that Mallya bought real estate in France for 35 million euros and sought to make payment of 8 million euros from the account of Gizmo Holdings, which was one of his companies. 

The liquor baron has been absconding from India since 2016 and is living in the UK. Proceedings to bring him back to the country have been underway. 

The chargesheet in question was filed last year but has been made available to all the accused in the case now. Former general manager of IDBI Bank, Buddhadev Dasgupta, has also been added as an accused in this chargesheet. 

There are now 12 accused in the Rs 900 crore IDBI Bank-Kingfisher Airlines loan fraud. The chargesheet stated that Dasgupta misused his position to sanction Rs 150 crore loan to Kingfisher over and above the Rs 700 crore that was sanctioned.

Mallya has been accused of living an extravagant lifestyle even as Kingfisher was facing a huge cash crunch. The baron was using an aircraft from the airline for his personal use as well as of his friends at a time when Kingfisher was amid a cash crunch. He has also been accused of splurging money on the Formula 1 racing team, Force India, in the guise of advertising and promotional charges by making false declarations to Indian banks.

Also read: Vijay Mallya's lawyers tell SC they cannot represent the fugitive businessman as he is 'not traceable'

Also read: ATR 72 aircraft that crashed in Nepal was once part of Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines