The Supreme Court of India postponed a case of contempt of court against liquor baron Vijay Mallya. The court informed that it can sentence him only when the Central government extradite him back to India. The Central government through Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi informed the court that the procedure to extradite Mallya is already underway and the procedure will be over by December 4, 2017. Mallya has been found accountable of contempt of court in a case of relocating funds from him to his children. A syndicate of banks are waiting for Mallya’s extradition so that they can bring him to face the court on different cases filed against him for defaulting of loans to the tune of Rs.6000 crore. Mallya was also found guilty of contempt of court on May 9 because he has transferred $40 million to his children which are violation of the apex court’s order. Court had directed Mallya to be present in the court for hearing the quantum of punishment but he insisted to be in UK.
The consortium of banks is behind the liquor baron since his beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines went under and the consortium under the leadership of State Bank of India is behind him to collect his dues. The Karnataka High Court had put a restriction on all funds Mallya was supposed to receive and the idea was to divert those funds to pay the dues of the six banks. Mallya after receiving $40 million from Diageo diverted the entire amount to his son Siddharth and daughters Leanna and Tanya before leaving the country for the United Kingdom. The consortium of bank approached the court and said that what Mallya has done was “flagrant violation” of the orders of the court. Supreme Court heard both the sides and sided with the banks on May 9, 2017. Mallya argued that the money belongs to his children and not his and he not attending the court helped the bank’s case. To make the case stronger in the bank’s favour, Vijay Mallya without attending the court chose to attend a few cricket matches featuring India during the ICC Champions Trophy in June.
