A United Kingdom court has asked businessman Vijay Mallya to pay 13 Indian banks a minimum of Rs 1.8 crore in legal fees by July 5, PTI reported on Friday. On May 10, a UK court had said that he can be regarded as a “fugitive from justice”. Mallya is accused of wilfully defaulting on about $1.4 billion (Rs 9,380 crore) in loans for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
An additional amount may be added to the penalty which cannot be appealed, The Hindu reported.
In May, Judge Andrew Henshaw ruled against Mallya’s plea challenging the registration of a ruling by India’s Debt Recovery Tribunal in the United Kingdom and a worldwide freezing of his international assets.
Mallya lost a lawsuit filed in the United Kingdom by 13 Indian banks seeking to collect more than $1.55 billion (Rs 10,385 crore) from him amid allegations that he committed massive fraud. The 62-year-old businessman is fighting a number of lawsuits in the UK and India related to fraud and money-laundering allegations. He is also fighting the Central Bureau of Investigation’s attempts to extradite him from the UK. On April 27, the Westminster court hearing that case most of the evidence the CBI had submitted against Mallya.
The businessman, who has been in the United Kingdom since March 2016, has said he would not return to the country. India’s Ministry of External Affairs submitted an extradition request to the United Kingdom in February 2017 after Mallya made his self-imposed exile clear. The request was made on the basis of an extradition treaty signed between the countries in 1992.
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