French authorities have seized fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s property in France worth £1.4 million based on a request made by India's Enforcement Directorate. According to the ED, Mallya’s seized property is located at 32, Avenue Foch, Paris. The asset created by allegedly laundering bank loans availed by Mallya using his Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. Mallya has defaulted on loans of over £ 900 million taken from public sector banks. The agency has attached his properties worth over £1.1 billion. Mallya has already been declared a fugitive economic offender and his extradition from the UK is in progress. A chargesheet has been filed in court against him and a non-bailable arrest warrant is pending. “Extradition request of Mallya was sent to UK, and the Westminster’s magistrate’s court has ruled for his extradition on charges of money laundering on December 10, 2018,” the ED said.
SC stays probe order against Flipkart
The Supreme Court has stayed an order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) asking the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to direct an investigation into alleged market dominance of popular e-commerce platform Flipkart. A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian ordered stay on the NCLAT’s March 4 decision that negated the CCI’s earlier finding that there was no prima facie evidence to suggest that the e-commerce platform abused its market dominant position. Appearing for Flipkart, senior advocate Harish Salve said the NCLAT decision suffered from contradictions as it did not observe anything wrong with the CCI finding and yet directed investigation into alleged abuse of market dominant position. He said Flipkart had a strong rival in Amazon and hence could not be said to have any market dominance.
Canara Bank hikes deposit rates
A day before the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announces its decision on interest rate, Canara Bank has bucked the trend to raise the same on deposits. The bank has increased interest rate by 20 basis points (100bps = 1 percentage point) from the record lows that it had touched last month. According to the bank, due to this increase, interest rates on deposits in the 2- to 3-year bracket will go up to 5.40% from 5.20%, and in the 3- to 10-year tenor to 5.50% from 5.30%. Senior citizens will get 50bps more at 5.9% and 6%, respectively, in these two segments. While returns on fixed deposits continue to remain below 6%, the recent increase marks a reversal of trends. That is because interest rates have been consistently falling since the Covid-19 lockdown, in line with the rate cuts announced by the RBI and the liquidity infusion measures that it had announced.
