Former liquor baron Vijay Mallya has been arrested in London in money laundering case, according to state broadcaster DD. The details are awaited but according to Times Now, the arrest may be procedural and a bail order may be in place.
Mallya has been rejecting allegations by investigation agencies that he diverted most of the Rs 6,000 crore borrowed from a State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders as fabricated and baseless.
The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, in their yet-to-befiled chargesheet, said the funds were allegedly laundered to shell companies in half a dozen countries.
Mallya, who fled to the UK from India in March 2016, said in January the allegations of fund diversion were a ‘joke’ and that he was getting used to “witch hunts coming from all directions with no legal basis whatsoever.”
