Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya approached the Karnataka High Court claiming that banks recovered the “principal debt amount multiple times over” in the Kingfisher Airlines loan default case. In his petition, Mallya sought directions to the banks to provide an account statement of the recovered amount.
Justice R Devdas issued notices to 10 banks, including SBI and Punjab National Bank, a recovery official, and an asset reconstruction company.
Senior advocate Sajan Poovayya, representing Mallya, said while Kingfisher Airlines owed around Rs 6,200 crore in debt, Rs 14,000 crore has already been recovered.
“The Finance Minister informed the Lok Sabha about this, while the loan recovery officer mentioned that Rs 10,200 crore had been recovered. Even though the full loan amount has been settled, the recovery process is still ongoing,” the advocate said.
Mallya sought an interim stay on any further recovery action by the banks and a direction to provide a statement for all amounts owed by him and United Breweries Holdings, the holding company of Kingfisher Airlines.
Last year, the fugitive liquor baron, who fled to Britain in 2016, claimed in an X post that banks had recovered over twice the Rs 6,203 crore debt ordered by the Debt Recovery Tribunal.
He also cited Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement in Lok Sabha that properties worth Rs 14,131.6 crore belonging to Mallya were restored to the banks.