Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has granted an extension to the North Collector to complete the hearing into applications filed by a consortium of banks seeking possession of liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Villa in Candolim.
The deadline extended till May 2015 comes after the collectorate informed the court that it could not complete the process in December 2015 due to several adjournments sought by the defence counsels based in Mumbai.
North Goa Collector Swapnil Naik confirmed the development stating that the hearing would resume in April.
The Kingfisher Villa, named after Mallya’s UB Group’s popular beer brand, is part of the collateral pledged by United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd. During the loan recovery process in November 2015, the State Bank of India, along with 16 other banks, had approached the Collector seeking possession of the luxury villa. Mallya, by then had already moved a caveat application requesting the district authority to inform his company about any such development.
The high court had subsequently passed an order asking the collectorate to decide the matter within three months, till December 2015. “During the hearing, the company sought adjournments very often since its representatives would travel from Mumbai. This resulted in the delay. We then moved the high court seeking an extension which was granted,” an officer said.
Not absconder
Meanwhile liquor baron Vijay Mallya (60) on Friday tweeted that he had not absconded from India and cried that he has become a victim of the media trial.
“Once a media witch-hunt starts it escalates into a raging fire where truth and facts are burnt to ashes,” he said in a flush of tweets over a week after he reportedly fled from Delhi.
In one of tweets, he said: “I am an international businessman. I travel to and from India frequently. I did not flee from India and neither am I an absconder. Rubbish.”
“As an Indian MP I fully respect and will comply with the law of the land. Our judicial system is sound and respected. But no trial by media.”
Mallya also rubbished news reports that he must declare his assets. “Does that mean that Banks did not know my assets or look at my Parliamentary disclosures?”
Government’s collusion
The Congress on Friday cornered the government in the Rajya Sabha with the proof of its connivance and collusion in letting liquor tycoon Mallya escape from India last week despite so many agencies probing his frauds with the nationalised banks to the tune of over Rs 9,000 crore.
No way he could fly out so easily but for the CBI amending its own “lookout” notice to detain him if he tries to leave the country, Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad asserted during the zero hour, rubbishing Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s claim on Thursday that there was no court order nor any agency order to stop Mallya from flying abroad as that is every citizen’s right.
The Congress members shouted slogans at the government helping Mallya to flee instead of make him pay the dues of the banks even as Azad pointed out that the CBI changed its October 15 “lookout” notice to the immigration authorities to detain him if he tries to leave India within a month in November that the agency should be just “informed” in case he leaves the country.
