Billionaire businessman Vijay Mallya has been sentenced to four months in jail and fined Rs 2,000 in the alleged contempt of court case by the Supreme Court on Wednesday. (April 4). The apex court said that the sentence would be effective from the date of his arrest on March 1 this year. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for April 17. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that an order was passed against Mallya by virtue of which he should surrender forthwith but despite that, he remained at large and did not comply with the order passed by apex court.
The Supreme Court Monday handed a four-month jail term to fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya in a contempt case for transferring $40 million to his children in violation of court orders. A bench headed by Justice U U Lalit also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on Mallya.
Mallya was found guilty of contempt in 2017, and the matter was thereafter listed to hear him on the proposed punishment to be awarded to him. The top court had in 2020 dismissed Mallya’s plea seeking review of the 2017 verdict.
Mallya, who is accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, has been living in the UK since March 2016 and is currently on bail on an extradition warrant executed by the Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.
The apex court had noted that as per an office memorandum, under the signature of the deputy secretary (extradition) of the Ministry of External Affairs, the proceedings for extradition have attained finality and Mallya has “exhausted all avenues for appeal” in the UK.
Original Article – https://indianexpress.com/article/india/vijay-mallya-contempt-case-supreme-court-8021780/
