New Delhi: Fugitive businessman and owner of now defunct Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallya continues to express his anguish with India’s efforts to extradite him from the United Kingdom. In a fresh tweet Thursday, Vijay Mallya cast aspersions on some comments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an interview.
Vijay Mallya said, “None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU banks and the same banks claim otherwise in English courts. Who does one believe? One or the other is lying (sic).”
The Kingfisher Airlines, owned by Vijay Mallya, was forced to close in 2012 and its license was revoked a year later after the airlines failed to repay nearly Rs 9,000 crore that it owed to banks in India.
The Indian government has been trying to extradite him from the UK and seize his assets to recover the loans.
Vijay Mallya’s tweet comes a day after he failed to convince UK High Court to dismiss an order related to money in one of his London bank accounts, dealing a blow to the embattled liquor tycoon’s efforts to prevent a consortium of Indian banks getting access to nearly 2,60,000 pounds.
Vijay Mallya had Wednesday also accused the Indian government of discriminating against private airlines. In a series of tweets he said the government isn’t helping private airlines like Kingfisher and Jet but is readily pumping in Rs 35,000 crore of public money in Air India just because it is a PSU.
Government used Rs 35,000 crore of “public funds to bail out Air India”. “Just being a PSU is no excuse for discrimination,” Mallya wrote on Twitter.
He added: “I invested hugely into Kingfisher which rapidly grew to become India’s largest and most awarded airline. True, Kingfisher borrowed from PSU Banks as well. I have offered to pay back 100 per cent but am being criminally charged instead. Airline Karma?”
“I am willing to pay either way whether I am in London or in an Indian Jail. Why don’t banks take the money I offered first,” he questioned.
Meanwhile, Vijay Mallya remains on bail as he awaits an oral hearing to be listed by the UK High Court for his appeal against his extradition ordered by Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London last December and then signed off by UK home secretary Sajid Javid in February.
A first level of that written appeal has already been rejected by the High Court, where it will now be considered during a brief hearing to determine any grounds to grant permission for Mallya’s appeal to proceed to appeal substantive hearing.
Meanwhile, a State Bank of India-led (SBI) consortium of 13 Indian banks continue their attempt to enforce a worldwide freezing order upheld by the UK High Court in May last year through a number of follow up court orders to try and recoup some of the GBP 1.145 billion owed to them.
Agencies