Vijay Mallya offers to pay dues to Indian banks!
Vijay Mallya on Wednesday appealed to various Indian banks to accept his offer to pay back the full principal loan amount he owes to them.
The 62-year-old former Kingfisher NSE -11.11 % Airline boss, who has been on bail in the UK on a deportation warrant since his arrest in April last year, is fighting banishment to India on charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crores.
The businessman said that the huge loans he took from banks went into keepin犀利士
g his unused Kingfisher Airlines afloat despite high jet fuel prices.
“Airlines struggle financially partly because of high ATF prices. A kingfisher was a wonderful airline that faced the highest ever crude prices of $140/barrel. Losses mounted and that’s where Banks money went. I have offered to repay 100 per cent of the principal amount to them. Please take it.”
Mallya also claimed that his vast liquor empire, the United Breweries, contributed “handsomely” to the state exchequer.
“Sad loss of the finest Airline but still I offer to pay Banks so no loss. Please take it,” he said.
“Politicians and the media are constantly talking loudly about my being a defaulter who has run away with PSU Bank money. All this is false. Why don’t I get fair treatment and the same loud noise about my comprehensive settlement offer before the Karnataka High Court,” he said.
“I see the quick media statement about my deportation decision. That is separate and will take its own legal course. The most important point is public money and I am offering to pay 100 per cent back. Its my humble request to the banks and the Government to take it,” he said.
A ruling at the end of Mallya’s deportation trial is expected at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on December 10.
The deportation trial, which opened at the London court on December 4 last year, is aimed at set out a prima facie case of fraud against Mallya and establishing there are no bars to him being deported to face Indian courts over the assertion relating to loans made out his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
In separate legal proceedings, the businessman had also lost his appeal in the UK’s Court of Appeal against a High Court order in favour of 13 Indian banks to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds.
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