SC seeks Mallya’s overseas asset details in 4 weeks

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Tuesday drew flak from the Supreme Court for not making full disclosure of his overseas properties, which asked him to furnish complete details of his assets abroad within a month.

A bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman also pulled up Mallya for not giving details of $40 million which he had allegedly received from British firm Diageo in February this year, saying it was of the "prima facie view" that proper disclosure as per its earlier order was not made.

"We are prima facie of the view that the report has not made a proper disclosure in respect of our order of April 7 directing to make complete disclosure of assests and in particular, the receipt of $40 million as to when it was received and how it has been dealt till date," the bench said.

The apex court asked Mallya to make a detailed disclosure of his assets abroad like he had done while disclosing his properties in India and that too, within four weeks.

It said that the details Mallya filed earlier in his disclosure statement about his foreign properties do not have reference of cash in hand or bank details and details of assets like he has done for those in India. At the outset, the bench observed that if Mallya wanted to come clean he would have told the court about the $40 million which was a huge amount deposited in the bank account. 

"We are not happy the way you (Mallya) filed your statement," the bench observed, adding that it cannot find any details of $40 million or where it has been expended, in the report furnished to the apex court by the liquor baron. "$40 million dollar was a cash in hand and you (Mallya) have not told us what you did with that amount. Our direction was disclosure of assets and cash in hand. Nobody knows what happened with $ 40 million," the court said.