Vijaya Mallaya Bought Properties Abroad Before Fleeing from India: CBI

Mumbai: Although he had enough money with him, the fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya preferred to buy properties worth Rs 330 crore in England and France instead of repaying his loans before he fled from India. He bought these properties in Britain and France in 2015-16, while his Kingfisher Airlines was facing an economic crisis. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) made these new allegations in its supplementary chargesheet filed in a Mumbai court.

In its chargesheet, CBI alleged that between 2008 and 2017 Mallya had enough money to repay the loans taken for Kingfisher Airlines Limited (KAL). But he did not do that.

He preferred to transfer huge amounts of money to his children’s trusts and paid large sums to buy “personal assets” across Europe. The CBI, after taking permission from the court, sent a communication to various countries asking for Mallya’s transaction details.

As per the information received by the CBI, Mallya bought real estate in France worth 35 million euros and had sought to make a payment of 8 million euros from an account of one of his companies, Gizmo Holdings.

Mallya left India in 2016 and is said to be residing in the United Kingdom. Efforts are underway to bring him back to India to face trial.

Mallya is an accused in the alleged over Rs 900 crore IDBI Bank-Kingfisher Airlines loan fraud case being probed by the CBI.