CBI gets non-bailable warrant against Vijay Mallya, moves extradition request to bring him back from UK

CBI on Monday initiated an extradition request to bring back former liquor baron Vijay Mallya from the United Kingdom through a Special Court in Mumbai.

The investigative agency secured a non-bailable warrant against Mallya, following it with an extradition request from the Special Court, to competent authorities in the United Kingdom, CBI sources said.

Mallya had left the country on March 2 and has not returned ever since, they said.

CBI, in its October 16, 2015 request to issue a lookout circular, had said if Mallya tried to leave the country, he should be detained at the exit point.

Nearly a month later in November, the agency asked for a revised circular, where it asked the Bureau of Immigration (BoI) to only inform it about his departure and travel plans.

As per agency sources, the lookout circular depends on the issuing authority and unless they ask BoI to detain a person or stop him from boarding a plane, no action is taken.

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They said after CBI changed the lookout notice, BoI did not make any attempt to stop him from travelling abroad, and every time he travelled the agency was duly informed about it.

Mallya is facing the CBI probe for defaulting on repayment of loans of Rs 900 crores taken from IDBI. In total, the former liquor baron owes several banks a total of as much as Rs 9,000 crores.

State Bank of India, which leads the consortium of 17 banks that lent money to the grounded Kingfisher Airlines, had moved Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in Bengaluru against the airlines chairman Mallya in its bid to recover over Rs 7,000 crore of dues from him.

The CBI had registered a case against Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), Chief Financial Officer of the airlines A Raghunathan and unknown officials of IDBI Bank alleging that Rs 900 crores that IDBI sanctioned as a loan to Mallya was in “violation of norms to do with credit limits.”

The agency had later expanded the probe to include loan defaults of all other banks.

Clarifying his position regarding the loan owed by KFA, Mallya said in a recent statement after the closure of the airline, that since April, 2013, the banks and their assignees have recovered, in cash, an aggregate of Rs 1,244 crores from the sale of pledged shares.