Vijay Mallya seeks time till April to appear before ED

Officials said they are "studying the reply and reasons" cited by Mallya and will take a final decision soon whether to grant his request or not

Vijay Mallya, who is in the United Kingdom, on Thursday made it clear that he will not appear today before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over Rs 900 crore IDBI bank loan default case and asked time till April to do so. ED had earlier issued summons to Mallya for ‘personal appearance’ in Mumbai on March 18 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

ED said the agency officials are mulling options and “studying the reply and reasons” cited by Mallya in his communication seeking more time for appearing before it and will take a final decision soon whether to grant his request or not.

Mallya resigns from RCB

IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore has written to the Indian cricket board, intimating them about Vijay Mallya's resignation from the post of Director of Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited. Russell Adams, vice-president (commercial operations and cricket academy at RCB) will now be the man in-charge of the RCB team.

Mallya, promoter of long-grounded Kingfisher Airlines, had left India on March 2 and headed for UK, days before the Supreme Court heard a plea of clutch of state-owned banks seeking recovery of more than Rs 9,000 crore from his group firms.

The ED had recently registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on a CBI 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.

The CBI had booked Mallya, the 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.

The ED is looking into the "proceeds of crime" that would 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 (DRT) for recovery of these dues.

It has also sent official requests seeking details of the probe conducted by the Income Tax and Service Tax departments and the Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO) 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 the 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.