"Vijay Mallya through his close associate Balaji group has been siphoning out over Rs five crore per month from Herbertsons," the petition alleged. "Mallya has been stripping assets of Herbertsons to his personal gain and to the benefit of other companies controlled by him and treating the company as his personal preserve," it added.

Mallya and Kishore Chhabria through his uncle M D Chhabria have been fighting over the ownership of Herbertsons, and a case is already pending with the Mumbai High Court. Petition has further alleged that Herbertsons has been made to source its Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) for Tamil Nadu from Balaji Distilleries, for Kerala from Seven Seas Distilleries and forAndhra Pradesh from Paramount Distilleries and Pearl Distilleries. This fraud was exposed by the income tax authorities during the assessment of the accounts for 1993-94 of Herbertsons and tax authorities assessment order of March 1997 has recorded that the company was indulging in cost inflation exercise.

Meanwhile, Mallya's UB group tonight refuted allegations made by Kishore Chhabria group of financial irregularities in Herbertsons and said the Chhabrias were trying to divert attention from the fact that the accounts of BDA Ltd are not in order over the last three years.

The allegations made by Chhabria group in a petition before the CLB are baseless, UB group spokesman told PTI in Mumbai. Amongst all the Indian liquor companies, only BDA, of which Chhabria is the chairman, had shown losses despite the fact that its brand ``Officers' Choice'' had grown substantially during this period, he said.