The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya seeking a review of its May 2017 order holding him guilty of contempt for transferring USD 40 million to his children in violation of the court's order.
A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice UU Lalit, dismissed the plea saying "we don't find any merit in the plea". The court had reserved its order in the matter on August 27 after hearing all the parties in the case.
Mallya is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines and is presently in the United Kingdom.
The Supreme Court had issued its May 9, 2017, order on a plea by a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), claiming he had allegedly transferred USD 40 million received from British firm Diageo to his children in "flagrant violation" of various judicial orders.
Earlier, the apex court had asked Mallya about the "truthfulness" of his disclosure of assets and the transfer of money to his children. At that time, the top court was dealing with pleas of lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit USD 40 million received from offshore firm Diageo to the banks respectively.
The banks had then accused Mallya of concealing the facts and diverting the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in "flagrant violation" of the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court.
( With inputs from ANI )
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