SBI seeks Vijay Mallya's arrest, wants his passport impounded

MUMBAI: The country's largest lender, State Bank of India, has approached the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) seeking arrest of Vijay Mallya in a bid to recover loans to Kingfisher Airlines, which was promoted by the liquor baron. SBI also wants his passport impounded and a complete disclosure of his personal assets. The move comes after Mallya struck a $75-million deal with Diageo to exit United Spirits. He had also indicated that he was likely to relocate to the UK.

SBI leads a consortium of 17 lenders to the grounded Kingfisher Airlines, which has defaulted on loans worth Rs 7,000 crore. According to sources, SBI has sought to secure the lenders' first right on Diageo's payout to Mallya.

Earlier in the day, the CBI blasted lenders for not coming forward with a complaint in the Kingfisher Airlines "fraud", saying the delay helped the company "divert funds and destroy evidence".

"The message to the public is that the rich and powerful are able to avoid consequences of cheating and fraud, while the ordinary citizens are promptly booked. This undermines faith of people in rule of law, which has dangerous consequences in a democracy," CBI Director Anil Sinha said at a bankers' conference here.

Citing the Kingfisher case, he said, "Despite our repeated requests, the banks did not file a complaint with the CBI. We had to register the case on our own." Regretting that only "one among the 17 lenders" had declared Kingfisher a "wilful defaulter", Sinha said the loans in question were taken between 2004 and 2012, while the CBI filed the case only in July 2015.