A big relief news has come to the fore for the former employees of Kingfisher Airlines. ED has played an important role in completing the process of restitution of Rs 311.67 crore from the long pending dues of the employees. This money will now be given to the former employees of Kingfisher Airlines. This step has been taken by ED under PMLA i.e. Money Laundering Act, the objective of which is to send the money earned from crime to the rightful owners.
This amount was released on 12 December 2025 after the order of the Recovery Officer of Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT-I), Chennai. This money has come from the sale of shares which were earlier seized by ED and later returned to State Bank of India. Now this amount will be transferred to the official liquidator, who will distribute it among the former employees of Kingfisher Airlines.
CBI FIR against companies linked to Vijay Mallya
ED had started investigation on the basis of CBI FIRs against Kingfisher Airlines, Vijay Mallya and their associated companies. Investigation revealed that the loan taken from banks was not used for the right purpose. Money from other banks was used to repay the loan of one bank. Bank of Baroda bills were settled. Foreign payments were made, which were named as aircraft lease and purchase of parts. ED attached assets worth Rs 5,042 crore under PMLA during the investigation. Apart from this, assets worth Rs 1,694.52 crore were seized under CrPC. Along with this, ED had also declared Vijay Mallya a fugitive economic offender on January 5, 2019.
Clear the way to repay the outstanding amount
ED has so far returned assets worth Rs 14132 crore to SBI and bank consortium. Now the way has been cleared to clear the dues of the employees from this property pool. ED continuously talked to senior officials of SBI in this matter. On the initiative of ED, SBI filed an application in DRT and clearly said that the dues of the employees should be paid before the loans of the banks. After this, DRT ordered to give Rs 311.67 crore to the employees. It is clear from this entire action that ED is not limited to just confiscating the property of criminals, but its focus is also to ensure that the victims, especially the employees, get their rights back.
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