The Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) is expected to announce its orders on the claims laid by state-lender State Bank of India, in the Kingfisher Airlines case later today.
SBI, along with the 17-bank consortium that has to recover over Rs 6,000 crore from Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya, started closing in on him after the businessman stepped down from United Spirits, in a $75 million (nearly Rs 114.3 crore) deal from Diageo. As a part of the deal, Diageo said it would pay $40 million immediately, with the balance payable in equal installments over the next five years. It will also absolve Mallya of all liabilities over alleged financial lapses at the company founded by his family.
SBI has laid first rights' claim on the payout from Diageo, and also sought that Mallya be arrested and his passport seized.
"Since Mallya had given personal guarantees for the loans given to Kingfisher, this money (which he will receive from Diageo) belongs to us. We have decided to move to the DRT to claim that money," said a senior official from a public sector bank. "We are making all-out efforts to get our money back. We will use all the opportunities to recover our money bank," said another state-run bank official.
In the meantime, Vijay Mallya, who has been called an "absconder" since he announced plans of moving to England to spend more time with his kids, said that he will continue to cooperate with the investigative agencies in the Kingfisher Airlines case.
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He also said that he's making an attempt to reach a one-time settlement with the banks through additional payments to the lenders while denying "personally" being a "borrower or judgement defaulter" and alleging that a "disinformation campaign" was being played to make him a "poster boy" of all bad loans.
