Enforcement Directorate seizes Mallya's assets worth Rs 1,411 crore

A special anti-money laundering court in New Delhi has confirmed an attachment of assets order worth Rs 1,411 crore issued by the ED against United Breweries Holding Limited (UBHL) and others in connection with its money laundering probe against liquor baron Vijay Mallya and others.

The central probe agency in June had issued the first attachment of assets order in this case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) that included bank balance of Rs 34 crore, a flat each in Bengaluru and Mumbai, an industrial plot in Tamil Nadu, a coffee plantation land in Coorg and residential and commercial constructed areas in UB city and Kingfisher Tower in Bengaluru in the name of United Breweries (Holdings) Limited and other firms.

"I, therefore, hereby confirm the attachment of the properties made under...PMLA. I, therefore, order that the said attachment shall continue during the pendency of the proceedings relating to the offence under the PMLA, 2002 before a court...," an order issued by Member (Law) of the Adjudicating Authority of PMLA, Tushar V Shah, said. The approval by the court will now allow ED to take possession of the seized assets, a senior official said. The agency, while issuing the provisional order in June, had said its probe in the case revealed that some of the properties were being "disposed of" by the accused so that further action undertaken by the agency under PMLA can be "frustrated".

An attachment of assets under PMLA is aimed at depriving the accused from obtaining benefits of their ill-gotten wealth. Mallya, whose defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, had left India on March 2. The total attachment made by the agency in this case has now shot up to Rs 8,041 crore and this is one of the largest attachment of assets made by ED in a PMLA case till now. The agency had registered a money laundering case against him and others based on an FIR registered last year by the CBI.