ED chargesheet names Vijay Mallya, United Breweries

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 18 (ANI): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday filed a fresh chargesheet against liquor baron Vijay Mallya and United Breweries Holdings Ltd (UBHL) on charges of money laundering.

The ED filed a prosecution complaint before a special Mumbai court under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

In its chargesheet, the ED named Mallya, his company Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) and UBHL among others.

"These companies were not having any actual activity and independent source of income. Mallya was controlling all the group companies through his office personnel. The Directors in the said companies were namesake or dummy Directors, acting on the directions of office personnel of M/s UB Group, who were at the command of Mallya," read a statement.

Mallya, 62, is facing a trial for the UK Court to rule if he can be extradited to India to face charges for financial irregularities involving a total amount of Rs 9,000 crore, as well as money laundering cases.

In April last year, Mallya was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant but was subsequently released on bail against a bond worth 650,000 pounds.

A month later, the Liquor Baron lost a lawsuit filed in London by a consortium of Indian banks seeking to collect the amount of Rs 10,000 crore amid allegations that he committed massive fraud.

A judge ruled that the consortium of lenders, including IDBI Bank, could impose an Indian court's decision against Mallya, who was found to have willfully defaulted on USD 1.4 billion in debt taken by his now-defunct airline Kingfisher. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI