With Vijay Mallya refusing to make an in-person appearance before the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the agency has decided to make a formal request to the National Central Bureau, a division of Interpol in India, to issue a red corner notice against him.
The move comes after CS Vaidyanathan, Mallya's counsel, told the Supreme Court that the liquor baron did not plan to return because he might be taken straight to Tihar jail from the airport.
Once the letter is issued, the Interpol wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to issue the red corner notice on the Interpol's website in a day or two with a request to arrest him and hand him over to the enforcement agency in India.
Confirming the development, a senior ED official told Business Standard: "We are compiling the investigation report, which is required for the Interpol notice. This will go with the copy of the non-bailable warrant, issued on April 18, this week itself. Ideally, it takes one or two days to process it. If the request has been made on a priority basis, it gets processed in 24 hours."
A red-corner notice is an arrest warrant or court order issued by the judicial authorities in the country concerned. Many of Interpol's member-countries consider it a valid request for provisional arrest.
ED sources said Mallya's personal information, a detailed account of the circumstances of cases in which he is wanted and charges would be submitted. According to the warrant application, out of the total loan of Rs 950 crore sanctioned and disbursed by IDBI Bank in 2010, Rs 423 crore had been remitted out of India.
These apart, the agency will also provide the list of properties abroad that Mallya created by siphoning part of the loan. In addition, the report will include the progress that the ED has made in determining how the IDBI loan was restructured in 2010 and converted into preferential shares and, eventually, into the equity shares of Kingfisher Airlines.
"We need to emphasise that Mallya had been actively involved in criminal activity and the investigation could not be finalised without Mallya's statement on his role in the Rs 6,963-crore bank loan fraud case," said a source in the know.
On April 18, the special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) issued warrants against Mallya after he failed to appear before the agency after three summons. The government also informed the apex court on April 26 that it would soon initiate proceedings to have Mallya extradited from the UK.
THE STORY SO FAR
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Oct 2015: CBI files criminal case against Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines, A Raghunathan and IDBI officials
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Dec 2015: CBI questions Mallya
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Mar 2, 2016: Mallya leaves for London
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Mar 7, 2016: ED registers an ECIR under PMLA against Mallya, KFA and others
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Mar 18, Apr 2 and Apr 9: Mallya does not appear in person at ED
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Apr 15: MEA suspends Mallya's diplomatic passport for four weeks
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Apr 16: ED seeks non-bailable warrant against Mallya
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Apr 18: PMLA court issues warrant
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April 24: MEA revokes Mallya's diplomatic passport under the passport Act
