Nirav spoils Mallya’s party

Absconder Vijay Mallya perhaps never intended to repay his bank loans. Had he the will, he would not have fled posthaste  with a dozen suitcases two years ago. Mallya was supremely sure of getting away with the purloined money by leveraging his influential yacht-party network and exploiting loopholes in the legal system. But things are now getting hot in Britain where he opted to continue his opulent lifestyle while on the lam. Mallya’s  public statement that he was keen to repay creditors by selling assets worth Rs 13,900 crore ($2.04 billion) is the expected resort to victimhood because of a turn in circumstances both in India and in the UK  — the recent Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance and Britain’s uncomfortable position after another Indian economic offender Nirav Modi joined Mallya in London.

Like many other habitual offenders, Mallya may have banked on the court cases against him dragging on for several years. He may not have anticipated  the ordinance that empowers the government to sell assets of absconders like Mallya even before the trial begins. The Enforcement Directorate has already attached his assets and has moved the court for their confiscation evoking the ordinance. In fact, Mallya’s recent move in the Karnataka High Court for settlement of loans is nothing but a desperate ploy to frustrate the ED’s recovery efforts and prolong the case.

In fact, fugitive Nirav Modi’s London sojourn has spoiled Mallya’s party in London. Britain would not like to earn the reputation of  being a haven for economic interlopers, especially when post-Brexit, PM Theresa May is on a weak political wicket and needs the comfort of large economies like India to improve her ratings. Mallya would be aware that the subject was important enough for PM Modi to have touched upon it during his bilaterals with May. That and the ordinance rather than altruism seemed to have guided Mallya’s latest subterfuge.