Businessman Vijay Mallya on Sunday told Reuters he will fully comply with court enforcement officers seeking to seize his assets in Britain but said they will not be able to take much as his family’s homes are not in his name.
Mallya is accused of wilfully defaulting on loans worth Rs 9,380 crore that he took from a consortium of 13 Indian banks. A commercial court in the United Kingdom passed an order on June 26, allowing the banks to search the businessman’s homes near London and seize goods from his houses in Tewin and Hertfordshire.
“I have given the UK court on affidavit a statement of my UK assets,” the businessman, who owns the Force India Formula One team, told Reuters during an interview at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone. “Which, pursuant to the freezing order, they are entitled to take and hand over to the banks. There are a few cars, a few items of jewellery and I said ‘OK, fine. You do not have to bother to come to my house to seize them. I will physically hand them over. Tell me the time, date and place’.”
He said there was no question of him being homeless after the asset seizures as “at the end of the day, they are entitled to take my assets in my name declared on oath to the court”. The authorities cannot go one step beyond, he added.
Mallya said his luxury yacht, which was recently sold at auction in Malta after a dispute over unpaid crew wages, was not his problem. “I have not owned the Indian Empress boat for more than seven years now,” he claimed. The yacht belonged to “a Middle Eastern gentleman” who allowed him to use it for one month a year, Mallya claimed. He, however, refused to name the owner.
On June 26, Mallya accused the Indian government of conducting a witchhunt against him and said he “has made and will continue to make every effort to settle with public sector banks” he owes money to. The businessman said he was tired of the government’s “relentless pursuit” of him, and claimed that the charges against him were “untenable and blatantly false allegations”.
In May, the UK High Court refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya’s assets. A month later, a court asked the businessman to pay a minimum of Rs 1.8 crore in legal fees by July 5. The final hearing in India’s extradition case against the businessman is scheduled for July 31. Last week, an anti-money laundering court in Mumbai summoned Mallya on August 27. He will be declared a “fugitive offender” if he fails to turn up.
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