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NBW against Mallya in cheque bounce case
Failed to pay GMR Rs 10 cr in user charges
CEO, 3 directors also in dock
Tribune News Service & PTI

A closed counter of Kingfisher Airlines.

Hyderabad, October 12
A Hyderabad sessions court on Friday issued a non-bailable warrant against Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya and five others after they failed to appear before it in connection with a case filed by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd for dishonouring of cheques worth Rs 10 crore.

The 13th Special Magistrate Court at Erramanzil issued the warrant against Kingfisher Airlines, Vijay Mallya, CEO Sanjay Agarwal and three other directors of the company and posted the case to November 5.

The NBW was issued after Mallya failed to appear in a cheque bounce case filed by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHAIL) that runs the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here, pertaining to user charges, including parking, landing and navigation fee.

A GHAIL spokesperson said his company had filed four cheque bounce cases against Kingfisher Airlines amounting to Rs 10 crore. The cases were listed today for the airline to appear in the court.

Since they failed to appear before the magistrate, the court ordered issuance of a NBW against Kingfisher Airlines, Vijay Mallya and four other officials.

GMR had filed a case in August after four cheques of Rs 10 crore issued by the airline bounced.

Mallya’s counsel submitted a petition before the Nampally criminal court stating that his client was currently out of the country and would not be able to appear in court personally.

It is not the first time that Kingfisher Airlines has landed in trouble over bounced cheques. Earlier in June, Mumbai International Airport run by the GVK Group had filed a cheque bounce case against Kingfisher in a Mumbai criminal court.

Kingfisher has been saddled with a loss of Rs 8,000 crore and a debt burden of another over Rs 7,000 crore.

What GMR says

There was an agreement between Kingfisher and GMR under which the airline was collecting user development charges/fee from passengers with regard to Hyderabad airport charges
The Mallya-owned carrier was supposed to remit GMR the money amounting to around `10 crore, which it did not pay
GMR had filed a case in August after four cheques of `10 crore issued by the airline bounced
After this, legal notices were also served, but Kingfisher did not make the payments

Kingfisher extends lockout till Oct 20

New Delhi, October 12
Ailing Kingfisher Airlines has extended its lockout till the next weekend, apparently after failing to convince its striking staffers, protesting delay in salaries, to return to work. Airline sources said the management, in an internal mail, has said that due to operational reasons, all flights across its network would be cancelled till October 20.

The mail came a day after Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal appealed to all employees, striking over non-payment of salaries for seven months, to return to work to resume flight operations soon. The employees are insisting that the salaries be paid first before they resume duty.

With all its flights cancelled since the lockout declared on October four, aviation regulator DGCA earlier asked liquor baron Vijay Mallya-owned carrier to stop selling tickets following reports that it had started accepting bookings last week before ending its lockout.

Kingfisher had declared a lockout on September 28 till October four following the strike, cancelling its entire flight schedule, and extended it till October 12 later. This has now been extended till October 20.

On October 5, DGCA issued a show-cause notice to Kingfisher asking why its flying license should not be suspended or cancelled as it had grounded its entire fleet and failed to offer safe, efficient and reliable service. It has given the airline 15 days to reply. — PTI