To strike off ‘fugitive’ tag, Mallya moves SC

New Delhi, Dec 7: Vijay Mallya has moved the Supreme Court seeking to remove the 'fugitive' tag against his name by the Enforcement Directorate. The case is expected to be heard today.

The plea comes a day after he made repeated offers to persuade Indian authorities to accept his settlement before the Karnataka High Court. The Westminster Magistrate's court is due to deliver its verdict on a plea by India seeking to extradite Mallya from the United Kingdom.

He urged the banks to accept his offer and said that the huge loans that he had taken from them went into keeping the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines afloat despite high jet fuel prices. Mallya also claimed that his vast liquor empire, the United Breweries, contributed "handsomely" to state exchequers.

In September, Mallya had told the Prevention Money Launder Act (PMLA) court that he was not a fugitive economic offender. He also said that he was not involved in the scheduled offence of money laundering.

In June the Enforcement Directorate had filed an application before the PMLA court to declare him a fugitive economic offender and also sought to confiscate all his properties estimated to be around Rs 12,500 crore. The court took congnisance of the plea filed by the ED.