MEA suspends Vijay Mallya’s passport on advice of Enforcement Directorate
NEW DELHI: The external affairs ministry has suspended loans defaulter Vijay Mallya’s passport on the advice of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The ED had asked that the liquor baron’s passport be revoked for non-cooperation with investigators, after he failed to present himself before the agency that has summoned him three times.
Mallya was supposed to present himself before the ED’s investigators in Mumbai on Saturday in connection with a money laundering probe in the more than Rs 900 crore IDBI loan fraud case.
The ED has registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others, based on an FIR registered last year by the CBI. The agency is also investigating the financial structure of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines and is looking into any payment of kickbacks it made to secure loan the loan.
Mallya was first summoned by the agency to “appear in person” at its office in Mumbai on March 18 but he sought more time citing his prior engagements, following which the agency asked him to depose on April 2.