Vijay Mallya. Photo: Reuters

London: Vijay Mallya, who is undergoing an extradition trial in a UK court over Rs 9,000-crore fraud and money laundering charges, will face next year a parallel litigation brought by 13 Indian banks to freeze nearly USD 1.5 billion of his assets.

According to court documents submitted at the UK High Court, the claim brought by the Indian banks against the 61- year-old embattled liquor baron will come up for a hearing in April next year.

“The First Respondent’s (Mallya) application to set aside the Freezing Injunction is to be set down for hearing on the first available date after 11 April 2018 with a time estimate of 2 days,” states the court document.

The litigation in the Queen’s Bench Division of the commercial court in England’s High Court of Justice lists the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd as the applicants.

Mallya and related concerns Ladywalk LLP, Rose Capital Ventures Ltd and Orange India Holdings are listed as respondents.

The claim, dated November 23, relates to a judgment of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in Karnataka dated January 19 this year, which concluded that Mallya was “liable” to the banks in the sum of INR 62,033,503,879.42 plus interest and as at November 22, that judgment sum is “still unsatisfied as to INR 98,530,512,249.42”.

The “freezing order” involves Mallya and related concerns being “restrained until further order, from removing from the jurisdiction any of their assets in the jurisdiction up to a limit of 1,145,000,000 pounds and in any way disposing of, dealing with or diminishing the value of any of their assets whether they are inside or outside the jurisdiction up to the same value”.

The UK court had upheld the Indian courts injunction last week and given Mallya’s lawyers more time to respond due to the ongoing extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates Court, which is now expected to conclude on December 20.

A ruling in the extradition case is expected a few weeks later, by mid-January.

Meanwhile, Mallya remains on a 650,000-pound bail bond since his arrest on an extradition warrant by Scotland Yard in April this year.

Since December 4, he has been in court over five days of hearings to establish if he can be forced to return to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering involving his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines default of bank loans worth nearly Rs 9,000-crore.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), representing the Indian government, has claimed that the evidence they have presented confirms “dishonesty” on the part of the businessman, who acquired the loans through misrepresentation and had no intentions of repaying them.

Mallya’s defence team has been deposing a series of expert witnesses to try and establish that the default by Kingfisher Airlines was the result of business failure within a wider context of a global financial crisis and that its owner had no “fraudulent” intentions.

The extradition case returns for one of its final hearings today, when Judge Emma Arbuthnot is set to hear the testimony of prisons expert Dr Alan Mitchell, who is expected to critique Indian jail conditions as a potential “bar to extradition”.

The CPS will need to demonstrate a prima facie case to show that the criminal charges against Mallya, for which his extradition is sought, are justified.

The defence, on the other hand, will try and prove that the businessman will not get a fair trial in India because the case against him is “politically motivated”.

(PTI)

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday accused the Election Commission of becoming a “captive puppet” in the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who it said was brazenly breaking rules in a final bid to save the BJP’s “sinking ship” in Gujarat.

Charging the poll panel with not acting on Congress complaints against the BJP and Modi, the party said the poll panel was turning a blind eye to democratic and constitutional norms being violated by the ruling party openly.

The Congress denounced Modi’s “roadshow” after he voted in Ahmedabad on Thursday. This, it said, was a flagrant violation of the model code of conduct.

“It was an election campaign. Modi’s roadshow after casting vote is a clear case of violation of the model code of conduct. The Election Commission, it seems, is working under pressure from the Prime Minister and PMO,” Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said.

“If any shame is left in the Election Commission, it should act on the Congress complaints,” party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters here.

“It seems the Election Commission is blind. They cannot see Modi openly and brazenly violating the model code of conduct.

“This shows how unfortunately the Election Commission has become a captive puppet of the BJP,” Surjewala said.

“The Election Commission has different standards for the BJP and the Congress. What is the reason for the Election Commission to behave like a front organisation of the BJP?”

“When Rahul Gandhi gave interview to news channels, a notice was sent to him. But when Arun Jaitely released BJP’s manifesto on December 8, it was not a violation. When Modi appealed to people on December 9 to vote… it was not a violation. No notices were sent to them. The Election Commission remained silent then,” he said.

“Amit Shah using the Ahmedabad Airport to hold a press conference was not a violation? Arun Jaitley holding a press conference in Ahmedabad and one union minister (Piyush Goyal) holding a press conference in Delhi twice was not a violation?”

He alleged that Amit Shah was aware a case was being filed by the poll panel against the news channels for airing Gandhi’s interview much before it was announced.

“The EC was receiving orders from the PMO. Several ministers were calling the journalists and threatening them.”

Surjewala said when the Congress asked the poll panel about its complaints, it was told they would be looked into after 5 p.m. — when the second and final phase of Gujarat election would end.

“The Chief Election Commissioner (A.K. Joti), who was Chief Secretary to Modi (when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat), is still acting as the Chief Secretary to Modiji. This is shameful for the Election Commission.”

The Congress said the way the BJP was behaving showed Modi had conceded defeat in Gujarat.

Replying to questions, Surjewala said either the Commission was blindfolded or sleeping.

He said on Wednesday, the Congress sought an appointment with the Election Commission around 4.30 p.m. and was told the meeting would take place on Thursday morning.

“It was only after we threatened to stage a ‘dharna’ we were given an appointment at 10.15 at night,” he said.

“We are trying to wake up the Election Commission. We appeal to the Election Commission not to turn blind and deaf.”

(IANS)

Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday said India’s politicians should not drag the country into its domestic politics during campaigning for the Gujarat assembly polls.

“India should stop dragging Pakistan into its electoral debate and win victories on own strength rather than fabricated conspiracies, which are utterly baseless and irresponsible,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said on Twitter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday claimed at an election rally that there was an attempt by Pakistan to interfere in the Gujarat polls. Modi also raised questions about the alleged appeal by former director general (DG) of the Pakistan Army Sardar Arshad Rafiq for making senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel chief minister of Gujarat.

Modi alleged that Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had held a meeting at his house which was attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, a former Indian vice president, Pakistan’s high commissioner in India, and a former Pakistani foreign minister.

“On one hand, Pakistan Army’s former DG is interfering in Gujarat’s election, and on the other, Pakistani people are holding a meeting at Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house. After that meeting, people of Gujarat, backward communities, poor people and Modi were insulted.

Don’t you think such events raise doubts?” the prime minister had said while addressing a poll rally in Gujarat.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: India is ranked 109th in the mobile internet speed and 76th for fixed broadband speed globally, which is a 15 per cent increase, according to data from Ooklas November Speedtest Global Index.

“At the start of 2017, the average mobile download speed in India was 7.65 Mbps. Heading into the end of the year, average mobile download speed is 8.80 Mbps as of November. That’s a 15 per cent increase,” a statement said here on Monday.

“While mobile speeds increased modestly, fixed broadband speeds increased dramatically. Average fixed broadband download speed in January was 12.12 Mbps. As of November, it’s at 18.82 Mbps, a close to 50 per cent jump,” it added.

As of November, Norway ranks first in the world for mobile internet with an average download speed of 62.66 Mbps. Singapore takes the top spot for fixed broadband with a 153.85 Mbps average download.

“Both mobile and fixed broadband internet in India are getting faster, that’s good news for all Indian consumers no matter which operator or plan they use to access the internet. India still has a long way to go to catch up with countries that have top speeds around the world, however, we at Ookla are highly optimistic about the capacity for growth that is available in the Indian market and look forward to watching how the market grows in this coming new year,” said Doug Suttles, Co-Founder and General Manager at Ookla.

Ookla analyses the performance of the internet in every country based on consumer-initiated tests taken by real people using Speedtest.

“Over 17 billion tests have been taken with Speedtest to date. From our observations in these markets, there are a handful of factors that consistently tend to drive advances in internet speeds and performance. These factors also apply to growth in India,” the statement said.

It said the first and foremost factor is sufficient infrastructure. The strength and quality of networks is the baseline foundation required for faster speeds. Another key element in growth is competition. When operators compete to provide the fastest speeds and the best plans for consumers, they incentivise each other to offer progressively better options.

And a third factor in improving speeds is the consideration of new technologies that may boost network performance.

(IANS)

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi has been elected unopposed as Congress president, party’s central election authority head Mullappally Ramachandran announced on Monday.

Rahul Gandhi will collect the certificate formally declaring his ascension to the post on December 16, he told reporters here. The 47-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family was the lone candidate in the fray. He is the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to take over the top post

Rahul Gandhi succeeds his mother Sonia Gandhi, who remained in the post for 19 years. The CEA received a total of 89 nomination papers proposing Rahul Gandhi’s name for the top post.

All the nomination papers were found to be valid, Ramachandran said.

“Since the withdrawal of date/time is over and as there is only one candidate (Rahul), as per Article XVII (d) of the Constitution of Indian National Congress, I hereby declare Shri Rahul Gandhi elected as president of the Indian National Congress,” Ramachandran said.

Rahul Gandhi became the vice-president of the party in January 2013.

(PTI)