Mumbai : In a bid to nail down former liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday moved an application before a special court, requesting it to declare him an ‘absconder’. It may be recalled that a special court designated to hear cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) had in June declared Mallya as a ‘proclaimed offender’. According to Section 82 of the CrPC, a proclaimed offender can be arrested by any police officer or even a common man. Mallya was expected to appear before the special court within 30 days of declaring him as a proclaimed offender. However, he did not appear before the court. It must be noted that the ED is investigating the money laundering and the bank loans default case against Mallya.
Hiten Venegaonkar, the counsel representing ED, said, “This is a process wherein after an accused is declared as a proclaimed offender, he is given 30 days to appear before the court but in this case, Mallya did not appear till July 30, which was the last day.”
Urging the special court to declare Mallya as an absconder, Venegaonkar said, “The accused has not yet responded to the non-bailable warrants, which were issued against him long ago. He did not even make any attempt to respond to his declaration as a proclaimed offender by this special court.”
The agency also sought permission to attach all the properties of the beleaguered businessman, even if these are not tainted by an offence. After hearing the submissions advanced by Venegaonkar, the special Judge has reserved his order over the applications.
The special Judge has kept the matter for orders on November 8.
