Probe agency charges Vijay Mallya, others in Kingfisher Airlines-IDBI bank loan case; It follows the arrest of IDBI Bank ex-chief, 8 others
A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested nine persons, including former chairman of IDBI Bank, in connection with the Vijay Mallya's Rs 900-crore loan default case, the agency on Tuesday filed a charge sheet before a special court in Mumbai.
The voluminous charge sheet—with a list of 76 witnesses and 570 probe related documents—said that Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) allegedly diverted significant portions of the loan amount for "personal use".
The agency, seeking remand of the arrested, said the IDBI officials allegedly showed undue favour to Kingfisher in the matter of sanction and disbursement of short-term loans (STL)—Rs 1,509 crore on October 7, 2009; Rs 200 crore on November 4, 2009; and corporate loan of Rs 750 crore on November 27, 2009.
This is "despite weak financials, negative net worth and low credit rating of the borrower company" and despite it, "being a new client, not satisfying the norms stipulated in corporate loan policy of the bank", reads the remand application produced before the special CBI court presided over by judge HS Mahajan.
"Significant amounts were also remitted out of India on the pretext of payment of lease rental and purchase of aircraft parts etc. It is alleged that the application for availing the loans were submitted by A Raghunathan CFO of KFA wherein he gave reference of meetings held between Vijay Mallya and CMD of IDBI bank." Besides the nine arrested the tenth accused is the Kingfisher company, while the eleventh is Vijay Mallya, who is shown as absconding by the agency.
Even as a chargesheet has been filed in the case, the agency might find itself in a fix next Monday, when the hearing on bail plea for those arrested will be taken up.
A custodial arrest in corruption cases is normally held taking into consideration that the accused might flee the country or influence the evidence against them during the course of investigation or before the filing of a chargesheet. But with a charge sheet already filed, an accused is eligible to apply for bail.
In the Mallya case, CBI had filed an FIR in July 2015 and when asked why the accused were taken into custody, CBI officials told DNA, "to further the probe".
There is more. The probe agency has claimed that IDBI Bank gave Mallya a Rs 900 crore loan despite financial instability of KFA but is yet to mention the quid pro quo. The agency has to prove whether there were illicit transactions between bank officials and KFA management. For now, all that CBI has said is that a total of Rs 254 crore out of the Rs 900 crore loan were put to personal use by KFA officials. "Role of IDBI officials is yet to be probed," agency officials said.
Interestingly the FIR was registered under under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of Indian Penal Code and under appropriate sections of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. In its charge sheet, the agency has booked 11 accused, including Mallya and KFA under criminal conspiracy, fraud and other sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.
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