ED restitutes Rs 312 crore of Kingfisher Airlines to its former employees

NEW DELHI: A day after photos of Vijay Mallya‘s pre-birthday celebration in London surfaced, ED Thursday announced it had restituted Rs 312 crore of Kingfisher Airlines to its former employees towards long-pending dues.The amount was transf-erred to the official liquidator for disbursement to former employees of Kingfisher Airlines after the restitution was approved by Debt Recovery Tribunal, Chennai, directing release of funds from the sale of shares which had been earlier restituted by ED to SBI.Mallya fled to London after CBI registered a loan fraud case against him. ED initiated a money laundering case against him and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. Mallya was declared a fugitive economic offender in Jan 2019. ED identified and attached assets of Mallya, KAL and associated entities worth Rs 5,042 crore under PMLA, in addition to attachment of properties worth Rs 1,695 crore. Later, a special PMLA court permitted restitution of all attached properties through DRT to the SBI-led consortium. ED restituted the attached assets to the consortium banks, which together fetched a value of Rs 14,132 crore on their sale.“ED coordinated with all stakeholders to ensure settlement of long-pending workmen dues and engaged with senior officials of SBI and facilitated utilisation of restituted assets for payment of employee claims,” a senior official said. SBI approached DRT by filing an interlocutory application, offering restituted assets for discharge of workmen dues and consenting to priority of such dues over secured creditor claims, the official added.