Union Minister YS Chowdary Faces Arrest Over Alleged Loan Default

Hyderabad: At a time the government has pledged strong action against loan defaulters, union minister YS Chowdary faces arrest with a non-bailable warrant out against him on the complaint of a Mauritius-based bank.

A judge announced the warrant on Thursday after the minister failed to appear for the third time despite court summons.

Mr Chowdary, the Minister of State for Science and Technology, is a leader of the Telugu Desam Party and a member of Rajya Sabha.

He is also an industrialist. As a non-executive director of Sujana Industries, Mr Chowdary has been accused of failing to repaying over Rs.100 crore in loans taken for Mauritius-based Hestia Holdings, a subsidiary of Mr Chowdary's Sujana Universal Industries.

"We submitted before the court that the minister was making excuses and flouting the orders of the court on a regular basis. We also argued that this was a fit case for issuance of non bailable warrants as the accused was evading the process of the court," said Sanjeev Kumar, the lawyer representing the Mauritian bank.

The minister had asked to be excused from personally appearing before the court on the ground that as a parliamentarian, he was busy with "urgent work in Delhi".

Mr Chowdary is considered close to TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu.

Reacting to the warrant, he said he had full respect for the judiciary and denied that he had defied court summons.

The government - targeted by the opposition over industrialist Vijay Mallya "escaping" to the UK at a time banks are trying to recover 9,000 crores owed by his collapsed Kingfisher Airlines - had said last month that loan defaulters would not be spared.

"Banks have full authority and autonomy to deal with each wilful defaulter," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.