ED seeks fugitive offender tag for Mallya in first case under new law

New Delhi, June 22 : India on Friday made its first official move to clamp down against big bank loan defaulters under a new law as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) moved a court against liquor baron Vijay Mallya seeking to declare him a ‘fugitive offender’ and to confiscate his assets worth Rs 12,500 crore.
Officials said the agency filed an application before a Mumbai court under the recently promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance that empowers it to confiscate all assets of an absconding loan defaulter.
The application accessed by PTI seeks to immediately confiscate about Rs 12,500 crore assets of Mallya and his companies, both movable and immovable.
The ED has furnished evidences in its two chargesheets, filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the past, to make a case for seeking a fugitive offender tag for Mallya from the court.
Mallya is contesting these 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 overall alleged loan default of over Rs 9,000 crore of various banks.