Vijay Mallya submits reply on Enforcement Directorate's plea to declare him a fugitive economic offender

MUMBAI: Beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya on Monday submitted its reply to the Enforcement Directorate's plea to declare him a fugitive economic offender under the new law. A Mumbai court will hear the matter at 2.45 pm on Monday.

A special court in Mumbai had directed Mallya to reply within three weeks to the ED's plea, which is seeking to declare him an offender under the new Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018. Mallya had been given times to respond by September 24.

ED has charged Mallya under the new law in connection with a Rs 9,000 crore alleged bank fraud case. It has sought immediate confiscation of his assets worth about Rs 12,500 crore. The PMLA court had, earlier, issued non-bailable warrants against him in two cases filed by the ED.

As per the new law, a fugitive economic offender is an individual against whom warrants for arrest are issued for his involvement in select economic offences involving an amount of at least Rs 100 crore or more and has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution. The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 got the nod from the President in August this year. 

The ED in its earlier application had stated that Mallya "had no intention to repay the loans from the start and though he and Ms UBHL (United Breweries Holdings Limited) had substantial assets that were sufficient to repay the loans, they intentionally withheld the details from the banks." 

Mallya is contesting the money laundering charges in London as part of India's efforts to extradite him from there and face the legal system here in connection with an alleged loan default of over Rs 9,000 crore of various banks.