DRT allows banks to recover Rs 6,203 cr from Mallya

Bengaluru, January 19

The Debt Recovery Tribunal on Thursday ordered banks led by the State Bank of India to begin recovering Rs 6,203 crore that embattled businessman Vijay Mallya and his companies owe them.

"I hereby ask the bankers to start the process of recovery of Rs 6,203 crore at the interest rate of 11.5 per cent per annum from Mallya and his companies including UBHL, Kingfisher Finvest and Kingfisher Airlines," DRT Presiding Officer K Sreenivasan said in his order.

Sreenivasan disposed of 20 applications, several of which were filed by the liquor baron and his companies.

United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd (UBHL) is promoted by Mallya, of which he was made the Principal Officer last September in the absence of a Managing Director, while Kingfisher Finvest is a holding company.

The order brings an end to the nearly three-year legal battle in the Tribunal by the consortium, comprising 17 banks, to recover the money owed to them by the defunct airlines.

Banks had approached the tribunal in 2013 to recover dues from the defunct airline.

SBI had filed three other applications, including one seeking Mallya's arrest and impounding his passport, for "defaulting" on loans.

Mallya has been declared a Proclaimed Offender by a special PMLA court in Mumbai after he left the country on March 2 last year for the UK. — PTI