Vijay Mallya FERA case: After 17 years, final arguments to begin

The now defunct Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) case was registered by the ED against Mallya. The agency had issued summons under Section 40 of the FERA, directing him to appear before the agency in relation to the investigation where it was alleged that Mallya had violated the FERA regulation in connection to a transaction with Flavio Briatore of Benetton Formula Ltd based in London. It was alleged that Mallya, as a chairman of United Breweries Ltd, had entered into an agreement on December 1, 1995, with the London-based company for advertisement of the “Kingfisher” brand name on racing cars during the Formula-1 World Championship for the years 1996, 1997 and 1998. The ED now adjudicated the present matter. In the connection with this probe, Mallya was issued summons by the ED to appear before it September 27, November 8, November 26 and December 21 in 1999. After he failed to appear, the agency then moved the court seeking to prosecute him for ignoring the summons under FERA.

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The Delhi court, 17 years later, will now begin the final arguments in the case. In it, P Subramani, the then corporate vice-president of UB Group was summoned on July 5, 1999 along with the documents.

While recording his statement on July 30, 1999, Subramani had stated that only Mallya can explain the queries of the agency following which summons were issued to Mallya on September 27, 1999.

Service Tax dept plea before Bombay High Court

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has decided to hear an application filed by the Service Tax department against Vijay Mallya for recovery of dues from his defunct Kingfisher Airlines. They have also sought impounding of his passport. The plea was mentioned before Justice CV Bhadang, and stated that Mallya had admitted a default of Rs 32.68 crore besides the amounts not admitted.  ENS