UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya on Wednesday splurged
Rs. 28.70 crore buying players at the Indian Premier League auction, on a day
his shuttered airline Kingfisher Airlines, which hasn’t paid its employees
salaries since August 2012, posted a third quarter loss of Rs. 822 crore.
Mallya, who controls Royal Challengers Bangalore
(RCB), picked up all-rounder Yuvraj Singh for Rs. 14 crore, making him the most
expensive buy on Day 1 of the auction. Overall, RCB has spent Rs. 58.2 crore on
buying and retaining players this season.
Kingfisher owes Rs. 350 crore to it employees, who
have tried everything from protest marches to indefinite fasts to force Mallya
to clear their dues. Even the tax deducted at source from Kingfisher employees’
salaries wasn’t remitted to the income tax authorities.
Kingfisher, which Mallya promoted in 2005 as an 18th
birthday gift for his son Siddharth, also owes banks, oil companies, aircraft
lessors and others about Rs. 7,000 crore. The flamboyant UB Group chairman also
owns a Formula One racing team, race horses, yachts and luxury properties
around the world.
“RCB is a subsidiary of USL which has nothing to do
with Kingfisher. Even though UBHL (Mallya’s holding company, through which he
controls his businesses) had no obligation, it applied to court to pay KFA
employees which permission was not given by the court. It is wholly incorrect
to make a mischievous link between the IPL auction and KFA,” said KFA
spokesperson Prakash Mirpuri.
“This is the height of crony capitalism. The
government is a silent spectator even though TDS violation has taken place. If
the judiciary does not intervene in favour of Kingfisher employees, it is a
very sad reflection of denial of justice,” said aviation expert captain Mohan
Ranganathan
Post a Comment