Former liquor baron Vijay Mallya will not meet investigators of Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday. He has communicated through his lawyers that he will require time until early April to appear before the financial investigation agency.
This development comes even as an attempt by the lenders’ consortium led by State Bank of India to auction Kingfisher House on Thursday to recover their dues from the defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) failed.
The prime property, which is located close to the Mumbai domestic airport, , did not receive any bid at the e-auction. Mallya is wanted by several agencies in the ₹9,000-crore loan default case of Kingfisher Airlines. The move to auction the Mumbai property is part of the banks’ efforts to recover the money.
Market experts say the reserve price of ₹150 crore may have been a dampener as property prices over the last year have seen a correction. The memorandum for the e-auction had stated that the property would not be sold below the reserve price. Potential bidders may also have been inhibited by the prospect of tax authorities staking a claim to the auction money.
The consortium of lenders will now have to decide whether to lower the reserve price.