Mallya makes another offer of 100 per cent loan payback

PTI, Aug 8, 2019, 11:07 AM IST

New Delhi: Embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, whose social media interventions against the Indian government are a regular occurrence, took to Twitter once again to repeat his 100 per cent loan payback offer to the public sector banks in India.

The 63-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss, fighting extradition to India in a relation of fraud and money laundering allegations arising out of the debt acquired from the banks, quoted finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Lok Sabha statement from last week in his latest offer.

“Business failures in this country should not be tabooed or looked down. On the contrary, we should give an honourable exit or resolution to the problem in the letter and spirit of the IBC. Finance Minister’s reported statement,” Mallya said.

“In this spirit please accept my 100 per cent settlement offer,” he said.

In the wake of the death of Cafe Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha, Sitharaman made the statement while responding to the debate on the amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in the Lok Sabha last Thursday.

Mallya had previously taken to Twitter to draw parallels between his situation and that of Siddhartha, who had purportedly written a suicide note that pointed to harassment by the Income Tax Department before his body was found near a river on the outskirts of Mangalore.

“Govt Agencies and Banks can drive anyone to despair. See what they are doing to me despite offer of full repayment. Vicious and unrelenting,” Mallya said last week.

Mallya remains on bail pending his UK High Court appeal, now scheduled for February 2020, in the extradition proceedings brought by India in relation to charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to an alleged Rs 9,000 crores.