PTI, NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today initiated the process to declare beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya as a proclaimed offender for allegedly evading summons in a FERA violation case.
It has now given him the last opportunity to appear before the court by December 18.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Shehrawat directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take appropriate steps while initiating the process.
The court passed the order after ED’s Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta informed it that the open-ended non- bailable warrant (NBW) issued earlier against Mallya has been returned as unexecuted and the agency has no other option but to initiate the process under Section 82 and 83 of CrPC.
The agency is likely to take various steps, including publishing in newspapers regarding the matter.
The court had on April 12 issued an open-ended NBW against the liquor baron.
An ‘open-ended NBW’ does not carry a time limit for execution unlike ‘NBW’.
On November 4 last year, while issuing non-bailable warrant against Mallya, the court had observed that he had no inclination to return and had scant regard for the law of the land.
It had said that coercive process has to be initiated against liquor baron Mallya as he was facing proceedings in several cases and evading appearance in those matters.
The court had also held that Mallya’s plea, that he wanted to return to India but was “incapacitated” to travel as his passport had been revoked by Indian authorities, was “malafide” and “abuse of the process of law”.
