The FEOA (Fugitive Economic Offenders Act) special court in Mumbai on Wednesday adjourns the hearing  on the matter of confiscation of absconding liquopr baron Vijay Mallya’s properties to April 8.

In January, Mumbai Special Court  had declared  Mallya a ‘fugitive’ under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018. Under the FEOA, any person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued in respect of a scheduled offence and who has left India to avoid criminal prosecution or is abroad or refuses to return to India will face criminal prosecution.After the person is declared a ‘fugitive economic offender’, the prosecuting agency is vested with the powers to confiscate all his assets and properties to recover the dues. In June 22 last year, the ED moved the Special PMLA Court seeking to declare Mallya a ‘fugitive economic offender’ under the new act, to enable confiscation of all his properties, estimated at over Rs 12,000 crore.

However, through his lawyers, Mallya told the Special Court that he had not fled the country but left in the ordinary course to attend a meeting in Switzerland in March 2016 at the World Motor Sport Council and the arrest warrant against him was issued much later.

Special PMLA Court Judge M.S. Azmi  began hearing arguments on confiscation of Mallya’s properties from February. Mallya, 63, was summoned by the Special Court in Mumbai to appear before it on August 27, but he failed to honour the court summons, besides other notices, summons and arrest warrants by the ED wanting to question him.

–India Legal Bureau