Vijay Mallya, the 66-year-old
fugitive liquor baron, has been sentenced to four months in jail and is
required to pay a fine of Rs 2,000 for a 2017 contempt of court case. Mallya
was convicted of contempt in 2017 for transferring $40 million to his children
in violation of court orders. The Indian Supreme Court has ordered Mallya to
deposit the fine within four weeks, failing which a further sentence of two
months will be added.

The Supreme Court
further said the $40 million transaction was “void and inoperable” and ordered
the recipients to return the amount with 8% interest to the recovery officer
within four weeks. A contempt of this order will cause Mallya’s properties to
be attached to recover the money, the court said.

The fine imposed
on Vijay Mallya, however, left social media in splits. Once a billionaire, and
someone who is accused of taken loans worth thousands of crores from Indian
banks and defaulted, a fine of Rs 2,000 seemed inadequate to Indian netizens.

Satyam Mishra, a
Twitter user, wrote: “Courts be like – Thousands of crores scam needs guts &
steel of balls to execute. 4 months jail and Rs 2,000 fine. Hail Mallya (sic).”

“Meanwhile, an
honest taxpayer who grinds 14 hours a day works hard for his bread, is fined Rs
2,000 for not wearing a helmet or driving the wrong way (sic),” he wrote
further.

Himanshu Rathor,
another Twitter user, wrote, “Only Rs 2,000 fine on the person who ran away
after fraud Rs 9,000 crores (sic)…” He then wrote sarcastically in Hindi that
the fine is an insult to Mallya. Himanshu also shared a picture with Mallya’s face on the 2,000-rupee note. 

However, Rajiv Kalya, yet another Twitter user found the Supreme Court’s order reasonable. Kalya wrote, “Those who are criticizing low fine amount, should now law need to be equal for all, if someone has more wealth does not mean that they should pay extra ordinary fine amount.” 

Mallya was held guilty by the Supreme Court on two counts. The first, of not disclosing assets, and the second, of violating orders of the Karnataka High Court. 

India’s Union government told the Supreme Court that although Vijay Mallya’s extradition has been allowed, the liquor baron could not be brought back because of certain “secret” proceedings going on against Mallya in the UK, the details of which are not available with the Centre.