NEW DELHI
Businessman Vijay Mallya, who built his fortune with Kingfisher Beer and is a guarantor to the debt, left the country last week. Coming out in his defence, he said that as an Indian MP, he respects and will comply with the law. “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,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mallya, who is being chased by various banks of the country for defaulting on repayment of loans, has come out to say that he is not an absconder but an international businessman. “I am an international businessman. I travel to and from India frequently. I did not flee from India and neither am I an absconder,” he tweeted on Friday morning.
The matter was raised in the Parliament on Thursday with the opposition accusing the government of allowing the Rajya Sabha MP to flee India. The government retaliating by saying that the Rs 9,000 crore Mallya owed banks went back to UPA’s tenure in office.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the banks should have acted earlier to stop Vijay Mallya from going abroad, even as he warned of “appropriate action” against those responsible for any “inaction” in recovery of dues totalling over Rs 9,000 crore in the case.
“Banks and their consortium have started taking active action against Vijay Mallya. His assets are being attached,” Arun Jaitley informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The loans to companies promoted by Mallya were sanctioned in 2004 to 2007 and those turned into bad loans in 2009. The NPAs were restructured in 2010.
Mallya had left the country on Wednesday (March 2) for London, according to a top government official.
