Vijay Mallya, the fugitive Indian businessman who evaded thousands of crores from Indian banks and fled abroad, has suffered a major setback. The London High Court, which heard Mallya’s extradition case on July 26, declared him bankrupt.
Earlier this year, a UK court upheld an application by an SBI-led lender consortium to amend their bankruptcy petition in favour of waiving security on Mallya’s assets in India.
To this end, the London High Court’s Chief Insolvencies and Companies Court (ICC) Judge Michael Briggs ruled in favour of the banks. This has been a huge success for Indian banks, which have been battling for a long time over the last few years. However, the court also ruled out the possibility of Mallya appealing. Judge Briggs dismissed a petition filed by Mallya seeking leave to appeal against the bankruptcy order.
Mallya was accused by a consortium of 13 Indian banks of deliberately evading Rs 9,000 crore in loans to Kingfisher Airlines. The 65-year-old entrepreneur now has to surrender all his assets, as well as his bank and credit cards to a bankruptcy trustee who will examine them and find his true resources and liabilities, to sell relevant assets and repaying creditors.