Twelve Indian Public Sector Banks Petition London Court Urging It To Declare Mallya Bankrupt Over His Unpaid Debts

Twelve Indian public sector banks have petitioned a London court to declare former billionaire Vijay Mallya as bankrupt over the 1.15 billion British pounds (USD 1.52 billion) he owes in unpaid debts.

Lawyers representing the banks told the court that Mallya hasn’t paid anything toward the debt.

The banks and an asset restructuring company, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), have taken Mallya to a London court in what lawyers have described as “the end of the road” in their long-running battle.

The development has come barely two months before the hearing of the extradition case against Mallya which is scheduled to be heard in February 2020. Mallya, who is the founder of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd faces extradition to India to face fraud charges, if he loses the extradition case.

One of the lawyers representing the Indian banks told the London court that the bankruptcy petition was brought in the United Kingdom because Mallya has lived there for around 20 years and owns a number of assets in the country. These include a townhouse in London’s Regent’s Park thought to be worth more than 30 million pounds, a 13 million-pound mansion in Hertfordshire, three yachts and shares in Force India Formula One Team Ltd.

However, Mallya’s lawyer submitted that the petition to declare his client bankrupt should be dismissed because the banks are pursuing the same debt through the Indian courts on a diametrically opposite basis.

At the very least, the hearing should be adjourned until the determination of Mallya’s appeal against the extradition order against him, his lawyer stated.

In this connection, it may be recalled that Mallya was arrested in London in April 2017 after 17 banks accused him of willfully defaulting on more than Rs 91 billion (USD 1.3 billion) in debt accumulated by Kingfisher Airlines, which shut down in 2012.