Businessman Vijay Mallya's property worth Rs 14 crore located in France has been seized under the anti-money laundering law, the Enforcement Directorate said on Friday. It said the action was undertaken by French authorities "on the request of the Enforcement Directorate" and the property bears the address: 32 Avenue FOCH in France.
Various airlines, including the defunct Kingfisher, owed Rs 3,030 crore (Rs 30.30 billion) to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at the end of December last year.
The CBI has shared its findings with the Enforcement Directorate.
Merged entity to be named Kingfisher Airlines.
Kingfisher Airlines said it has entered into a code sharing and frequent flyer agreement with American Airlines, which will be effective from 2011. "The code share on Americans flight to Chicago will mark the first time ever that Kingfisher Airlines will place its code on any flight operating into the United States," executive vice president-commercial, Kingfisher Airlines Manoj Chacko said.
SpiceJet in a statement said that there is no default in payment to AAI since January this year.
It had issued warrants directing the police to produce Mallya before it.
Aviation consultancy CAPA on Thursday said allowing domestic airlines to take advance bookings from April 15 is "unfair" to consumers since a decision on lifting the nationwide lockdown is yet to be taken. During the lockdown period only special flights approved by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation, medical evacuation flights and those carrying cargo, including medical equipment, to and from different parts of the country are operational.
SBI has the highest exposure of Rs 1,600 crore to the beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines.
A Kingfisher Airlines ATR aircraft, with 42 passengers and four crew members on board, overshot the runway after it landed at Mumbai airport on Tuesday. All the passengers are safe and have been evacuated from the aircraft, a Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson said. "Kingfisher Airlines flight 4142 from Bhavnagar (Gujarat) left (overshot) the runway after landing," a Mumbai International Airport Limited spokesperson said. Both the pilots of the aircraft have been taken off duty
Mallya is at present based in London and extradition proceedings are on to bring him to India as the ED and the CBI are probing parallel criminal cases against him for an alleged bank loan default of Rs 9,000 crore.
A consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) returned to the High Court in London for a bankruptcy application hearing against liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, as they pursue the recovery of debt from loans paid out to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. At a virtual hearing before Chief Insolvencies and Companies Court (ICC) Judge Michael Briggs on Friday, both sides deposed retired Indian Supreme Court justices as expert witnesses on Indian law in support of their arguments for and against a bankruptcy order against Mallya in the UK. While the banks argued a right to waive their security over the Indian assets involved in the case in order to recover their debt in the UK, lawyers for the 65-year-old businessman argued that the funds in question involved public money held by state-owned banks in India which precluded them from such a security waiver.
The final list of bidders would be finalised only after the interested firms pay the earnest money deposit on June 30.
United Bank of India has already declared Kingfisher a wilful defaulter while State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and IDBI have initiated such a move.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday slapped a fine of Rs 2000 ($25) and a four-month jail sentence on fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya. In addition, the former liquor baron has been asked to deposit $40 million with 8 per cent interest within a month, failing which his properties would be attached to recover the amount. The court held Mallya guilty of contempt after it was brought to its notice that he had transferred $40 million to his children in the US.
Grounded carrier Kingfisher Airlines on Wednesday said promoters United Breweries Holdings and Kingfisher Finvest India have released about 5.64 crore pledged shares.
Kingfisher Airlines has defaulted on loans of over Rs 9,400 crore obtained from various banks.
A UK court hearing an urgent application on Monday refused to sanction the release of substantial sums held with the Court Funds Office (CFO) as part of bankruptcy proceedings being pursued against liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya by a consortium of Indian banks, led by the State Bank of India (SBI).
Lenders to Kingfisher Airlines, led by State Bank of India, had moved courts to get residual rights over these shares after Srei recovered the collateral from the defunct Kingfisher Airlines, making it difficult for Srei to sell the shares, said a legal source.
Banks do extensive investigation before declaring an account fraud; they owe it to us as they deal with our money. Why would they try to fix an innocent borrower? asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The 14 banks, led by State Bank of India, which lent Rs 6,500 crore (Rs 65 billion) to the airline, are now involved in litigation over the money, as Mallya has sued them in multiple courts.
RTI activist Anil Galgali had asked SBI about the total amount of loans given to the beleaguered businessman.
Frustrated over not getting salary for last 10 months, Kingfisher Airlines employees on Wednesday asked the government to prosecute promoter Vijay Mallya and threatened to disrupt IPL matches.
On Monday, the ministry withdrew foreign traffic rights it had granted to Kingfisher Airlines.
Airline employees have been asked not to attend office.
Aviation regulator DGCA on Saturday suspended the flying licence of beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines for failing to come up with a viable plan for its financial and operational revival and resolve the impasse withits employees over payment of their salary dues.
A consortium of banks led by SBI had alleged that Mallya concealed the facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in flagrant violation of the orders passed by the Karnataka HC.
The Deccan brand, once synonymous with lost cost flying in India, will cease to exist after its merger with the Vijay Mallya promoted Kingfisher Airlines, which will takeoff for international destinations by August. "Deccan will cease to exist because after the merger there will be only one company and that will be Kingfisher Airlines," UB Group chief and Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya told reporters in Baramati.
Kingfisher, grounded since October 1 and whose flying licence expired last December, has not paid to most of its staff since last June.
A case has been filed against the airline in Nampally criminal courts in Hyderabad.
According to a survey, Indigo is presently the favourite domestic airlines of travellers. It replaced Kingfisher, which won twice in the past.
According to sources, Kingfisher Airlines has started disbursing salaries to some of its employees apart from approaching the aviation regulator seeking licence renewal.
Ailing Kingfisher Airlines will have to satisfy aviation regulator DGCA about safe flight operations and also make sure that its employees are not disgruntled before it resumes its services, Civil AviationMinister Ajit Singh said.
The employees of the grounded Kingfisher Airlines, who have not been paid for eight months now, on Wednesday threatened to file a winding up petition in the court under the Company's Act, if the management did not share its revival plan with them.
The CBI recently approached the special court in Mumbai for issuance of LoR to conduct a probe to ascertain utilisation of funds received in the US-based bank accounts of Mallya and now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
The company had reported a net loss of Rs 650.78 crore (Rs 6.5 billion) in the same period a year-ago, Kingfisher Airlines said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Under DGCA norms, aircraft can't take off unless its worthiness is certified by airline engineers after safety check-ups
Kolkata-based United Bank of India, which had earlier declared Kingfisher Airlines and its four directors, including Mallya as wilful defaulters, on Tuesday identified UBHL, the guarantor of the grounded Kingfisher Airlines, also a wilful defaulter.
Despite a bleak operating environment, Jet Airways and SpiceJet have flown into the black. The turnaround may have more to do with their embattled rivals than anything else.
The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce on Monday the quantum of sentence against fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, an accused in the bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, in a contempt case where he has been found guilty. A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat on March 10 had reserved its order on the punishment in the contempt case against Mallya, saying the proceedings against him have hit a "dead wall". The top court had heard senior advocate and amicus curiae Jaideep Gupta on various aspects related to the contempt law and the punishment, and had granted one last opportunity to lawyer Ankur Saigal, counsel for Mallya, to file his written submissions on the sentencing aspect.