ED issues fresh summons to Mallya to appear on April 2

Official sources said agency accepted his plea and gave Mallya the new date to 'join investigations in person'

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had on Friday issued fresh summons to  Mallya to make a personal appearance before its investigating officer here on April 2 in connection with its money laundering probe in the Rs 900-crore IDBI loan fraud case. According to senior ED officials, Mallya had promised the ED to make himself present that day before the agency.

The new summons came after the United Breweries (UB) group chairman had on Thursday sought more time from the agency to present himself on a later date instead of the scheduled time for Friday.

Official sources said the agency accepted his plea and gave Mallya the new date of April 2 to “join investigations in person”.

The beleaguered businessman had informed the investigating officer of the case through e-mail on Thursday that he would not be able to keep the date of Friday.

They said after “studying the reply and reasons” cited by Mallya, including a communication he said he made to some agencies earlier that he would be out of India in March, the agency issued the fresh date.

The fresh summons to Mallya have been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and it requires him to furnish documents related to his personal investments and finances, income tax returns for the past five years and passport.

ED Director Karnal Singh is camping here since Thursday to supervise the high-profile probes being conducted by the agency.

including that of Mallya’s and the other related to the former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra and Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal, his family and others.

ED had recently registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) First Information Report (FIR) registered last year. The agency is also investigating the overall financial structure of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines and will look into any payment of kickbacks to secure loan.

CBI had booked Mallya, chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, its directors, former chief financial officer of the airlines A Raghunathan and unknown officials of IDBI Bank in its FIR alleging that the loan was sanctioned in violation of norms regarding credit limits.

ED is looking into the "proceeds of crime" that could have been generated using the slush funds of the alleged loan fraud. It is also probing if some of this amount was sent abroad illegally.

The agency has also written to the 17-bank consortium, led by SBI, which lent money to the grounded airlines, and later went to the Debt Recovery Tribunal for recovery of about Rs 9,000 crore.

It has also sent official requests seeking details of the probe conducted by the income tax and the service tax departments and the Serious Frauds Investigation Office against the airline in the past.

Besides, the central agency is looking for details of overseas and domestic assets of Mallya and his company officials, in coordination with central security agencies and CBI.

It has already questioned two senior officials in the money laundering case — Raghunathan and former United Breweries chief financial officer Ravi Nedungadi along with a few other accused.