ED clears ₹311cr to settle dues of Kingfisher staff

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it had cleared the release of ₹311 crore of impounded assets that are to be used by the official liquidator of Kingfisher Airlines to pay long-pending dues of employees of the now defunct airline promoted by liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

- Neeraj Chauhan

ED said in a statement that it facilitated the restitution of ₹311 crore after a December 12 order passed by the recovery officer, Debts Recovery Tribunal-I, Chennai, that directed the release of funds realised from the sale of attached shares which had been earlier restituted to State Bank of India (SBI) by the agency.

ED said on its facilitation, SBI had filed an application with the DRT offering the restituted assets for the discharge of workmen dues and expressly consenting to the priority of such dues over secured creditor claims.

SBI was the lead bank among a consortium of banks that had lent money to the company. The ED statement comes after media reports that the staff dues had not been released by SBI.