Following a request from the Enforcement Directorate, the Ministry of External Affairs Friday suspended liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s diplomatic passport. ED is probing an alleged money laundering case in connection with a loan of Rs. 900 crore taken from IDBI Bank.
Indian government also threatened to revoke Mr. Mallya’s passport and impound it if he failed to appear before the Indian High Commission in London within a week.
In a tweet, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said: “The External Affairs Ministry has suspended the validity of Mr. Mallya’s diplomatic passport with immediate effect for four weeks, under Section 10 A of the Passports Act.”
MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarupu announced the decision to public through a tweet.
Section 10 A of the Act empowers the authorities to suspend passports or travel documents in certain cases. The suspension order is communicated to all the ports of entry or exit in India.
The order also invalidated ordinary passport held by the chairman of now defunct Kingfisher Airlines which has defaulted on loans of over Rs. 9400 crore borrowed mainly from public sector banks.
Mallya is now left with the sole option of returning to the country on an emergency certificate issued by the Indian mission.
As per the information given by the government in Supreme Court, Vijya Mallya left India on March 2, flying out of Delhi on his diplomatic passport, and is believed to be in the United Kingdom.
India terms OIC reference to internal matters as factually incorrect, misleading
