Fresh charge sheet against Mallya in loan default case

CBI is all set to name senior bank officials who had dealt with loans given to Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines in a fresh charge sheet to be filed soon, officials said on Sunday.

This would be second charge sheet in the Mallya loan default case. The latest charge sheet will deal with the loans of over Rs 6,000 crore given to Kingfisher by a consortium of 17 banks led by State Bank of India which alone had an exposure of Rs 1,600 crore.

The CBI had earlier filed a charge sheet against Mallya last year in connection with a separate case related to Rs 900 crore loan given by IDBI bank.

Two separate cases on loan default were filed by the CBI against Mallya. The IDBI case was filed in 2015 while the consortium loan case was registered in 2016.

Investigators did not give details about the content and those who may find their names in the charge sheet though they indicated that both serving and retired bank officials would find their names in it. A senior official said, "the investigation in the second FIR is almost complete and the charge sheet will be filed within a month."

Mallya, erstwhile Kingfisher Chief Finance Officer A Raghunathan and others are likely to find their names in the second charge sheet as well.

As the judgement in the extradition case of Mallya is slated to be delivered in London on December 10, investigators have also expanded the scope of their investigations to officials of Ministry of Finance during UPA regime when loans were sanctioned to the liquor baron. There are claims that some officials pressurised the banks to clear Mallya's loan application despite reservations in certain quarters.

The State Bank of India and others had advanced various credit facilities to Kingfisher Airlines during 2005 and 2010 but Kingfisher Airlines failed to honour the commitments in 2009-10.

According to the FIR, Kingfisher Airlines did not keep its account with the consortium banks and it became NPA, the FIR said. The consortium then recalled credit facilities and also invoked corporate guarantee of UBHL and personal guarantee of Mallya. The CBI claimed that there was a conspiracy among group companies promoter and unknown others to cheat the lenders.