Mumbai: Court issues non-bailable warrant against Vijay Mallya for Rs 1,000 crore tax evasion

A Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Mumbai issued a non bailable warrant against, now, defunct Kingfisher Airlines owner Vijay Mallya and its chief executive Sanjay Aggarwal in connection with service tax evasion to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore.

The court summoned Mallya thrice before issuing the warrant. The court, however, refuted to entertain Aggarwal's appeal seeking exemption on the medical grounds, saying mere cough and cold cannot be a reasonable ground to be exempted from hearing.

The airline, which stopped operations in October 2012, allegedly did not deposit the service tax collected on ticket sales with the department and diverted the money for other purpose.

A consortium of 17 banks lead by State bank of India (SBI) had approached the Supreme Court to recover around Rs 9,500 crore from the airline and its promoter, which are yet to be addressed.

The Enforcement Directorate is also investigating two separate money laundering cases against Mallya and others, where they allegedly defrauded banks after defaulting loan payment. The agency is investigating a money laundering case against Mallya, where he defaulted Rs 900 crore loan payments to IDBI bank.

The business tycoon had also defaulted around Rs 9,400 crore loan payments to consortium of 17 banks led by SBI.

Mallya flew to London on 2 March, just days before a consortium of lenders knocked the Supreme Court's doors to recover the debt.

-ANI