Vijay Mallya moves Karnataka High Court, claims banks have recovered more than owed
Bengaluru: Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya has approached the Karnataka High Court challenging the debt recovery proceedings against the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Mallya contended that while Kingfisher Airlines owed approximately ₹6,200 crore, the authorities had recovered the "principal debt amount multiple times over."
The petition, filed on 3 February, was briefly heard by Justice R Devdas on Wednesday. Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya, representing Mallya, stated that no interim relief was being sought before the respondents were heard. Following this, the court issued notices to ten banks, a recovery official, and an asset reconstruction company named in the plea.
Mallya’s petition challenges the recovery process initiated by several nationalised and private sector banks, including the State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank. He has sought an interim stay on further recovery action and requested a statement of accounts detailing all amounts owed by him, United Breweries Holdings, and his other debtors.
In December last year, Mallya claimed on social media that banks had recovered more than twice the ₹6,203 crore adjudicated by the Debt Recovery Tribunal, including interest. He also referred to a statement by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha, where she reportedly said that ₹14,131.6 crore worth of Mallya’s properties had been restored to public sector banks.
Mallya, who fled to the UK in 2016, is wanted in India over the default of loans amounting to thousands of crores taken by Kingfisher Airlines.
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NIA chargesheets 7 for radicalising youth into terrorism under guise of free Arabic classes
New Delhi (PTI): The NIA on Friday filed a supplementary chargesheet against seven accused and Kovai Arabic Educational Association (KAEA), a registered society, in a 2023 case related to radicalisation of youth for terror activities under the guise of free Arabic classes.
The counter-terror agency had earlier chargesheeted four accused, including Jameel Basha, the principal of Madras Arabic College, in the case which arose from the investigation into the October 2022 Coimbatore car bomb blast.
Fourteen of the 18 accused in the Coimbatore blast were students of Kovai Arabic College, which functioned under the KAEA society, a statement issued by the NIA said.
The instant case, registered suo-motu by the agency's Chennai branch in August 2023, related to the radicalisation and incitement of youth into terrorist acts by an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)-inspired radical group under the guise of free Arabic language classes.
NIA investigations revealed that radical sermons were disseminated via online Arabic classes conducted through platforms like Zoom, WhatsApp and Telegram, and also through regular classroom sessions where Jameel Basha's live or pre-recorded lectures were broadcast, the statement said.
The seven accused named in the chargesheet, filed before a court in Chennai, were Jameel's students, identified as Mohammed Hussain, Irshath, Ahmed Ali, Aboo Hanifa, Jawahar Sadiq, Sheik Dawood and Raja Mohammed.
Of these, Mohammed Hussain and Irshath were among the four charged in the original chargesheet and now face additional sections in this supplementary filing, the NIA said, adding that "the society KAEA has been arraigned and charged as a legal person".
NIA is continuing with its investigation in the case, as part of its commitment to dismantling the terror radicalisation network, the statement added.
