CANDOLIM: Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Villa in Candolim was Friday taken over by bankers’ consortium, represented by SBICAP Trustee Company Ltd (SBICTCL). North Goa Collector and District Magistrate Nila Mohanan had passed an order on May 11 allowing the banks to take possession of the Kingfisher Villa under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act (Sarfaesi Act).
The order was passed after clearance from the Goa bench of Bombay High Court, making Bardez mamlatdar the authority for facilitating the attachment of the villa, within seven days of issuance of the order.
The consortium had entered into an agreement with SBICTCL, a subsidiary of State Bank of India (SBI), allowing it to represent them.
Mallya, who has absconded to England, had mortgaged the villa owned by his United Breweries Company against loans to Kingfisher Airlines.
Officials of SBICTCL along with the company’s legal head R L Rao, SBI lawyer Vikas Kumar, Mamlatdar of Bardez taluka Madhu Narvekar and Calangute police started the process to take possession of the villa at 2.30 pm. The villa was sealed by the officials after asking the security and the employees there to leave the premises.
The SBICTCL had sought physical possession of the villa by stating that Kingfisher Airlines had applied for a financial assistance of Rs 5,574.14 crore and United Beverages Holding Ltd (UBHL) had given corporate guarantee as a security for the financial assistance. Further, the UBHL had also created a first charge by way of mortgaging the secured assets in favour of SBICTCL by way of depositing the title deed vide the memorandum of entry and declaration dated March 18, 2011.
Kingfisher Airlines has been declared a wilful defaulter by various banks but features on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) list as just a defaulter. The largest creditor of the now-defunct airlines is the State Bank of India.
State Bank of India lawyer Vikas Kumar said that the United Spirits Limited (USL), which also had a stake in the Candolim villa tried its level best to stop the proceedings by filing an application before the Collector and the mamlatdar. The UBHL too tried to get a stay on the proceedings by moving an application before the District Magistrate and the mamlatdar but the application was rejected on both the occasions.
After sealing the villa, mamlatdar Narvekar told the media that the villa, along with moveable property is now in the possession of SBICTCL.