MUMBAI, Feb 18: Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya informed the Bombay High Court Wednesday that he cannot predict his return to India, citing a revoked passport and UK court orders barring him from leaving England and Wales amid ongoing fraud and money laundering cases totaling thousands of crores.
Submitting a statement via counsel Amit Desai, the 70-year-old—fugitive since fleeing India in March 2016—challenged requirements for his physical presence to contest his Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO) status under the 2018 Act and its constitutional validity. “Mallya lacks an active passport since its 2016 revocation and faces prohibitions on international travel,” Desai read, noting automatic FEO order reversal upon appearance in Indian court.
The bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad, which last week refused hearings without his return, directed the Union government to respond, adjourning to next month. Mallya was declared FEO in January 2019 by a PMLA court over massive bank loan defaults.
