New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday adjourned to August 2 a plea filed by fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya seeking a stay on the confiscation of his properties by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Mallya escaped from India after defaulting on bank loans worth Rs 9,000 crore in India and is currently facing extradition proceedings in the United Kingdom.
Mallya has challenged the ED’s jurisdiction to confiscate all his properties under the Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO) Act 2018, without identifying whether these properties were acquired from the ill-gotten money.
He argued that many of these properties were acquired in 1919 and has no connection with the bank loans in contention. The Bombay High Court had July 11 declined to stay proceedings in a special court in connection with confiscation of Mallya’s properties.
This special court had in January declared Mallya a fugitive economic offender and then started proceedings to confiscate his property in cases related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).