Setback for Vijay Mallya: Kingfisher Airlines CEO resigns

Mumbai, Feb 17: In a major setback for

, one of his crucial aide, Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) CEO -- Sanjay Aggarwal resigned from his post on Monday, Feb 17. Mr Aggarwal, who was the last senior official of the grounded airline, put his paper following several issues of the airline.

UB Group Chairman, Mallya, who is the owner of KFA, has been facing criticism ever since he spent crores to buy IPL players for his franchise Royal Bangalore Challengers (RCB). He spent Rs 14 crore only to buy cricketer Yuvraj Singh for RCB.

In an irony, his employees, who used to work with Kingfisher Airlines, did not receive their due salaries ever since Aug 2012 from when the airline grounded.

Sanjay Aggarwal resigned as Kingfisher Airline CEO on Monday, Feb 17

Addressing KFA employees, who were protesting against Mallya and UB Group officials demanding their salaries, the Chairman earlier had said, "I don't have the money to pay your salary dues, because I cannot use the proceeds from the United Spirits-Diageo deal for this due to an injunction from the Karnataka High Court."

Contrary to his claims, Mallya now was seen spending crores on players who will play for his franchise. Kingfisher Airlines, which Mallya had promoted in 2005 as an 18th birthday gift for his son Siddharth, owes Rs. 350 crore to it employees.

Citing the rage in people against its Chairman, KFA spokesperson Prakash Mirpuri said, "RCB is a subsidiary of USL which has nothing to do with Kingfisher. Even though UBHL (Mallya's holding company, through which he controls his businesses) had no obligation, it applied to court to pay KFA employees which permission was not given by the court. It is wholly incorrect to make a mischievous link between the IPL auction and KFA."

OneIndia News