Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. Giving another blow to India's fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, the stock market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has banned him from the Indian stock market for 3 years. Due to this, liquor businessman will not be able to do any kind of transaction in the market for 3 years. SEBI issued an order saying that Vijay Mallya is banned from accessing the securities market and apart from this and therefore he is banned from buying, selling or doing any kind of dealing of securities directly or indirectly or connecting with the securities market in any way for 3 years. In its order, SEBI also said that Vijay Mallya's holding of any securities will remain frozen. This also includes units in mutual funds. SEBI's order regarding Vijay Mallya has come with immediate effect. SEBI was investigating whether Mallya was indirectly involved in the trading of his shares. Notably, Indian businessman Vijay Mallya, who owned several companies including Kingfisher Airlines, owes about Rs 9 thousand crore to 17 banks of the country. Mallya fled the country to Britain in 2016, from where the Indian government is trying to bring him back to the country. Cases of fraud and money laundering are being tried against Mallya. On January 5, 2019, the court declared Vijay Mallya a fugitive.

SEBI found in its investigation that Vijay Mallya had devised a way to trade in the shares of Herbertson and United Spirits Limited (USL). He had opened several accounts in UBS Bank in different names (Bayside, Suncoast and Birchwood), of which he himself was the beneficiary. These three units transferred $ 6.15 million which went to Vijay Mallya. SEBI Chief General Manager Anita Anup in her order said, "After looking at the available facts and material in this case, I found that Mallya has not only violated the FII rules, but also bought and sold securities in the listed companies of his group in India in an illegal manner. This was against the interests of investors and was aimed at deceiving market players."

Mallya declared a fugitive in 2019

During the investigation last year, the CBI had claimed that Mallya had bought properties worth Rs 330 crore in Britain and France during the year 2015-16. At that time his company Kingfisher Airlines was in loss. Mallya himself did not repay the loan to the banks. In the year 2020, on the appeal of ED, France seized Mallya's property worth Rs 14 crore present there. The government has demanded the French authorities to hand over Vijay Mallya to India unconditionally. Mallya is currently in Britain, but India is currently contacting every country where Mallya has property. This is so that if Mallya leaves Britain and flees to another country, it does not take much time to bring him back to India. Talks on Mallya's extradition between India and France took place on April 15 during a meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Working Group. France offered Mallya's extradition with some conditions in this meeting, but India has asked them to remove the conditions. Joint Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs KD Deval attended the meeting from India's side. Apart from this, many officials of the intelligence agency were also present in the meeting.

Rise and fall of Kingfisher

After the demise of his father Vitthal Mallya, Vijay Mallya launched a beer company "Kingfisher Premium" under the United Breweries (UB) company in 1978. At the age of 44, Mallya became the chairman of UB Group. It is believed that to promote beer further, Mallya launched Kingfisher Airlines in 2005. After this, he bought IPL and Formula One teams. Mallya also started publishing calendars in the name of Kingfisher, in which bikini clad models were presented. Lately, Kingfisher Airlines started incurring losses from 2011, by 2012, the flights of some aircrafts had to be stopped. Employees stopped getting salaries, prompting protests from workers. By the end of 2012, the flights of more than half of the aircrafts were stopped and on 20 October, the Director General of Civil Aviation cancelled the license. This action was taken for not fulfilling the conditions of the regulator regarding the operations of flights. In February 2013, international flying rights were also suspended. By July 2014, the company had a debt of about 9 thousand crores rupees, which was not repaid. After this, the company declared itself bankrupt.