New Delhi: Business tycoon Vijay Mallya will not appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Mumbai on Saturday and has sought extension till May, sources in the agency told CNN-IBN.
Mallya told the ED he is busy negotiating with banks and that he will not attend the hearing. The sources said it is unlikely he would be given an extension, but a final call on this could be taken only on Saturday.
Mallya had been asked to appear before the ED in connection with a money laundering probe related to alleged fraud in a loan given to Mallya by IDBI. The case was based on a CBI FIR registered last year against Mallya, the directors of his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, its former Chief Financial Officer A Raghunathan and unknown officials of IDBI Bank. The FIR said the loan was sanctioned in violation of norms regarding credit limits.
The agency is also investigating the overall financial structure of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines and will look into any payment of kickbacks to secure the loan.
The ED is looking into the "proceeds of crime" that could have been generated using the slush funds of the alleged loan fraud. It is also probing if some of this amount was sent abroad illegally.
The agency has also written to the 17-bank consortium, led by SBI, which lent money to the grounded airlines, and later went to the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) for recovery of these dues.
It has also sent official requests seeking details of the probe conducted by the Income Tax and Service Tax departments and the Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO) against the airline in the past.
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