Lenders hopeful of recovering money from Mallya

Lenders in India are hopeful of recovering a significant portion of money fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya owes to them after a UK court allowed search and seizure of his properties near London.

“Banks are working very closely with all agencies and lawyers in London as to how High Court Enforcement Order can be enforced,” State Bank of India MD Arijit Basu told reporters here a day after a UK High Court judge issued an enforcement order in favour of consortium of 13 Indian banks seeking to recover their funds owned by Mallya.

Mallya owes close to Rs 9,000 crore to various Indian banks. The highest exposure is that of SBI.

“We have been able to come this far because of efforts that was taken in a very coordinated manner by all agencies including the government. We are very happy with the court order and with this kind of order we have we should be able to go after those assets,” Basu told media persons here.

Basu said there were various laws between different countries that allowed India to go beyond our national borders. He said India has got worldwide freezing order with its efforts.

“Going by the assets that we have, we feel that it will be significant amount of the debt if not whole amount,” he said.

Mallya had late last month offered to repay loans to Indian banks by selling his assets. But he made the offer only after Enforcement Directorate sought a court's order for confiscating all Mallya’s properties including those indirectly controlled by him.

The beleaguered liquor baron is currently fighting extradition to India on fraud and money laundering charges.