If you’re an Indian, you will be able to see the joke in the picture. They are scamsters who swindled thousands of crores of rupees and managed to flee India before they could be caught.
In the picture, you can see Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, and Lalit Modi laughing, next to Amjad Khan (Gabbar in Sholay), and the caption is Gabbar’s classic dialogue — “Teeno ke teeno bach gaye” !!!
Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, and Lalit Modi are scamsters who used unlawful, yet legit tactics to swindle public money, and managed to get out of India in the nick of time.
Diamond businessman Nirav Modi is the latest addition to this list; he managed to get a loan of over Rs 11,000 crore from Punjab National Bank (PNB) by gaming the sytem, and fled India before the news went public.
“Few experts believe that Sahara’s Subrata Roy’s jailing was unconstitutional, and Supreme Court’s demand of payment of money for bail was also unconstitutional. When Bail, which is virtually a right for every Indian (Innocent until proven guilty), was denied to Roy unless he coughed up money, Mallya and others decided that India was not a place for failed businessmen to get justice (highly biased and unfair). They felt the Western World is a better place to fight for justice,” says one thread on quora
Vijay Mallya arrested In London by Scotland Yard
Business tycoon Vijay Mallya, who fled India in 2016 and has been accused of defaulting on loans worth crores, has been arrested in London. India had asked the UK to extradite Mr Mallya on charges of money laundering in India.
We all know Vijay Mallya as a flamboyant business who is always surrounded by beautiful women. However, the king of good times Vijay Mallya seems to have fallen on bad times lately. Recently, a business deal was announced where Mallya was supposed to get millions of dollars and was contemplating moving to the UK. Now it seems, Vijay Mallya has already moved to the UK with substantial amount of money, while a consortium of banks went to court asking the court to restrain Mallya from leaving India.
Watch: Vijay Mallya’s Wealth Across the World
As per a newsreport, Vijay Mallya flew out in Jet Airways’ Delhi-London flight on a first class ticket, was accompanied by a woman and had seven huge bags, which didn’t seem like a business trip.
The whole country is calling him an ‘Absconder’ now, but Vijay Mallya doesn’t think so. Here are some of his tweets.
I am an international businessman. I travel to and from India frequently. I did not flee from India and neither am I an absconder. Rubbish.
— Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) March 10, 2016
As an Indian MP I fully respect and will comply with the law of the land. Our judicial system is sound and respected. But no trial by media.
— Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) March 10, 2016
So what exactly does he do for a living, and why is he in the news lately?
Vijay Mallya is not only a businessman but also a politician (he is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India). He was the ex chairman of United Spirits Ltd., the largest spirits company in India and Chairman of UB Group, an Indian conglomerate with interests in beverage alcohol, aviation infrastructure, real estate and fertilizer among others. However, recently, he sold of his business to Diageo in a multi-million dollar deal after which he has been accused of fleeing the country (with millions of dollars) while he owes crores of rupees to several banks in India.
It seems Mallya owed the banks more than Rs 9,000 crore but the assets pledged as collateral for the loans were merely 10% of the amounts advanced to him. “However, his sprawling assets abroad together are much more than Rs 9,000 crore due to the banks”. The loans given to Kingfisher were on the basis of brand value, which was very high at the time of advancement of loans.
In the movie ‘I’, directed by Shankar, the character of one of the villains was inspired by Vijay Mallya.
Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar is a regular at the parties hosted by Vijay Mallya, and his film ‘Calendar Girls’ was inspired by the life of Vijay Mallya. Suhel Seth had played the role of Vijay Mallya in the movie.
Watch: Calendar Girls Trailer
Watch: Making of the Kingfisher Calendar Girl 2015
Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi who moved to court on behalf of the banks said, “Most of the aircraft used by Kingfisher Airlines were on wet lease and the banks could not take control of them for recovery of loan as these belonged to other countries. The brand name has crashed. We need to sit with him across the table and get back the money that belongs to the public. Let him be forced to come back.”
About Lalit Modi
Modi had a dream run until 2010. During his reign, it seemed that the tycoon could do no wrong. However, his downfall was swift.
In 2010, Lalit Modi tweeted out the ownership details of the Kochi IPL team, which was going to be a new addition to the tournament. The board sent three show cause notices his way, accusing him of breaching confidentialy agreements, alleged financial irregularities in broadcast deals and rigging auctions. In April 2010 he was still the IPL commissioner. By September he was sacked from the board, and he had fled to England citing threats to his family’s safety.
Sahara Chief Subrata Roy: Rise & Fall of An Empire
Did the boss of India’s Sahara business conglomerate, Subrata Roy, bit off more than he could chew? Perhaps yes!
SEBI (market regulator in India) had initiated action against the group on the grounds that Sahara was violating company laws on raising funds from the public. Mr Roy has so called friends in Bollywood and Politics but they never spoke anything on this topic to avoid attracting media focus.
Also Read: Why Sahara’s Subrata Roy didn’t flee India like Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi?
Lets take a look at the rise and fall of his empire. Starting his journey from a cycle, Subrata Roy became ‘Sahara Shri’ in just a few years.
- The family is said to have its roots in Araria, Bihar, but was settled in Gorakhpur. Roy stayed with his parents and siblings in a rented house in Turkmanpur area. The eldest son, he did a diploma course before being forced to take up work due to the death of his father Sudhir Chandra, who worked in a sugar mill. Roy tried his hand first at making salted snacks, apparently supplying them on the Lambretta scooter (the scooter still stands enclosed in a cubicle in Lucknow’s Sahara Shaher) under a venture called ‘Jaya Products’. He then dabbled in yet another venture, along with wife Sapna Roy. Both ventures failed.
- In 1978, Roy set up Sahara. The Gorakhpur para-banking venture focused on small investors, such as tea-stall owners and rickshaw-pullers, who set aside as little as Re 1 a day and chose to entrust the money to Sahara India Financial, the group’s flagship firm. In a matter of three decades, it grew into India’s largest residuary non-banking company.
- While financial details of this growth have never been officially issued, Sahara, in the course of 30 years, would go on to become an empire with an extensive media network, a full-scale scheduled commercial airline, Air Sahara (sold to Jet Airways in 2006 for over $500 million), acquisitions in the premium hospitality segment (including a controlling stake in New York’s landmark Plaza Hotel and London’s iconic Grosvenor House Hotel) and an IPL team. The group’s high-profile lead sponsorship of the Indian cricket team only ended in December 2013. Now Sahara sponsors the Indian hockey team and owns a stake in Vijay Mallya’s Formula One racing team.
- Alongside the growth of Sahara, grew the story of Subrata Roy. His ‘Sahara Shaher’, a fortified 270-acre gated complex in Lucknow where Roy lived amid much luxury, became the talk of the country, and not just for what it featured, but the people it hosted. He organised much-talked-about events, graced by movie stars, politicians and corporates, and left the country stunned with the February 2004 wedding of his two sons at Sahara Shaher. Stars would perform at gigs in his own private auditorium at the Shaher. When Mayawati targeted it when she came to power in 2007, the mini-city’s halo shone even brighter.
- At the Sahara headquarters, staff were instructed to greet visitors by putting their right hand to their chest and saying “Sahara Pranam”. On Sahara TV, the anchors would greet the viewers in the same manner — all adding to Roy’s distinctive image. Sahara’s website claims no dividend has been paid to promoters for 34 years and no profit has been taken out of the group.
- Over the second half of the last decade, even as the run-ins of Sahara firms with regulators continued, Roy’s heady mix of politics and glamour showed no signs of diminishing. He would mostly be spotted with Samajwadi Party bigwigs Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh (then in the party) and Reliance ADAG chief Anil Ambani, players of the Indian cricket team, as well as the ever-present film stars. While allegations about Sahara being a parking lot for black money of politicians have been doing the rounds for years, no investigative agency has proved anything to this effect so far. Roy has said, on several occasions, that he has never paid nor received any money from the SP, though he concedes “respect” for Dhirubhai Ambani.
What do you think? Will any of these scamsters ever get caught?
