Vijay Mallya arrest: Timeline of money laundering case that led to King of good times' downfall

Business tycoon Vijay Mallya on Tuesday was arrested in London for his alleged role in a money laundering case.

Mallya, whose now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, had fled India on March 2, 2016.

In January, an Indian court ordered a consortium of lenders to start the process of recovering the loans.

It was second time when the liquor baron got arrested in London. Earlier in April, he was arrested by the Scotland Yard in London, UK on an extradition warrant. 

He, however, got bail hours after his arrest, by the local magistrate’s court. 

Mallya fled from India on March 3, since then, he has been staying in the United Kingdom.

Mallya served various notices by different agencies and courts to appear in hearings but after skipping them continuously, the court eventually granted him the tag of absconder and issued arrest warrant against him. 

Here is a timeline of all what has happened:

2005: Chairman of United Breweries (Holdings) Limited Vijay Mallya started a luxury airline–Kingfisher Airlines.

2006: Kingfisher Airlines applied for a loan with IDBI bank to seek support for its aircraft acquisitions. Mallya allegedly didn’t share the history with the bank in related to his Mangalore Chemicals and Fertiliser Acquisitions in the past that led to the rejection of his proposal.

2007: Kingfisher Airlines performed financially good that encouraged Mallya to take over Air Deccan. 

2008: The official process of acquiring Air Deccan got finished. United Breweries paid a markup of Rs 550 crore for their 26% stake in the entity.

The deal that laid the foundation of the financial nightmare which United Breweries was about to witness. 

2008: Kingfisher got a debt of Rs 934 crores due to rising oil prices, spiking working cost stress of a premium and an detoriating airline.

2009: The consolidated debt of the airline accumulated to a whopping Rs 5,665 crore that further led to Rs 7,000 crore. 

IDBI finally approved the loan request of Kingfisher, and provided a loan of Rs 900 crore to the airline.

2010 – Mallya had became the Rajya Sabha MP but Banks were mounting pressure on him and gave his airline an ultimatum of 9 months to pay back the entire loan amount. 

2011: Mallya took a salary of Rs 33.46 crore from Kingfisher Airlines annually. Meanwhile, the license of the Kingfisher airlines had been revoked due to which it stopped paying salaries to its employees.

Till March 2016, the total owed amount to employees for Kingfisher Airlines was Rs 3000 crore payable to 3000 employees. It owed an amount close to a billion dollars to IDBI and the State Bank of India as loan.

2013: The Kingfisher airlines valued in negative at Rs 12,919 crore due to massive liabilities. 

Led by SBI, a consortium of banks approached United Breweries Holdings Ltd(UBHL) for the payback of a loan amounting to Rs 6,493 crore on behalf of Kingfisher Airlines. 

Mallya gave an assurance that the larger sum of the amount owed to the banks would be settled at the earliest.

2014: Vijay Mallya had been branded as willful defaulter by United Bank of India. SBI an Punjab National Bank also joined the chorus. 

2015 – The total amount owed by Kingfisher had reached to Rs 9,091.40 crore.

April 2015 – To recover the funds, Mumbai International Airport sold Vijay Mallya's personal aircraft for Rs 22 lakh. 

The airline held accountable for non-payment of loans of Rs 115 crore by the Service Tax Department. The Department then took the complaint to Bombay High Court, that ordered the seizure of Mallya’s passport. 

March 2016: A consortium of banks sought to move Supreme Court to stop Mallya from escaping from the country. Mallya had, meanwhile, left the country on March 3 for the UK and took refuge in London.

November 2016: PMLA special court declared Vijay Mallya an absconder. 

February 2017: India sent extradition request to UK, that got cleared after the interference from the Ministry of External Affairs and Finance Minister Arun JAitley himself. 

April 2017: Mallya got arrested by Scotland Yard in UK. However, he was granted bail hours after his arrest. 

September 2017: Reports emerged that the CBI and Enforcement Directorate could be a step closer to make Vijay Mallya's extradition a success. The two organisations had been preparing a chargesheet against him that could strengthen the India's case in the UK court.

The loan defaulter allegedly diverted a large chunk of funds from the Rs 6,027-crore loan he took for his now- defunct Kingfisher Airlines from a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India.

The money was then diverted to shell companies in seven countries, including the US, UK, France and Ireland, the report stated, citing the sources.

A UK court fixed November 20 as the date for the pre-trial hearing in the extradition case of Vijay Mallya, the embattled tycoon wanted in India on loan defaults to several banks amounting to nearly Rs 9,000-crore.

October 3, 2017: Vijay Mallya got arrested in London Senior Indian officials described his arrest as the first salvo in the case, which will now involve a legal process in the UK to determine if Mallya can be extradited to India to face charges in Indian courts.

As mentioned above, India had given a formal extradition request for Mallya as per the Extradition Treaty between India and the UK through a note verbale on February 8.