Court directs Vijay Mallya and Sanjay Agarwal to appear on June 7

MUMBAI: The legal challenge mounts on the liquor baron Vijay Mallya and Sanjay Agarwal, chief executive of Kingfisher Airlines. Yet another court - the Esplanade court in Mumbai has directed them to appear on June 7 for a hearing on the case for recovery of dues filed by the service tax department.

On Wednesday, the department approached the court in the case to recover the dues in the tune of Rs 114 crores including interests. According to a senior tax official, the airline which stopped operations in October 2012, allegedly did not deposit the service tax collected on ticket sales with the department and diverted the money for other purposes.

Senior Counsel Amit Desai, while appearing for Mallya sought blanket exemption from the appearance in the court. However, Advait Sethna, special counsel appearing for the service tax department in the case argued that just because the person is well-known individual, he can’t be exempted from appearing in the court.

After hearing arguments from both the sides, the court adjourned the matter and directed Mallya and Agarwal to show up for next hearing.

Earlier, in late 2014, the revenue department had claimed the first right to recover dues by attaching the Kingfisher House in Mumbai, six aircrafts and two helicopters, besides freezing bank accounts of the defunct airline. Also, a consortium of 17 banks lead by SBI have approached Supreme Court to recover around Rs 9,500 crore from the airline and it’s promoter, which are yet to addressed.