New Delhi: The absconding Liquor Baron Vijay Mallya has questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi as to why he was not instructing the banks to take the money he had made available to pay off the public funds lent to Kingfisher.
“The Prime Minister’s last speech in Parliament was brought to my attention. He certainly is a very eloquent speaker. I noticed that he referred to an unnamed person who “ran away” with Rs 9000 crores. Given the media narrative I can only infer that reference is to me,” Mallya said in a tweet on Thursday.
“Following on from my earlier tweet, I respectfully ask why the Prime Minister is not instructing his Banks to take the money I have put on the table so he can at least claim credit for the full recovery of public funds lent to Kingfisher,” the embattled liquor baron said in a series of tweets.
“I have made the offer to settle before the Hon’ble High Court Court of Karnataka. This cannot be dismissed as frivolous. It is a perfectly tangible, sincere, honest and readily achievable offer. The shoe is on the other foot now. Why don’t the Banks take the money lent to KFA?” he added.
Mallya further said, “Am appalled, to say the least at the media reports on the Enforcement Directorate claims that I hid my wealth! If there was hidden wealth how could I put approximately 14,000 crores worth of assets openly in front of Court? Shameful misleading of public opinion but unsurprising.”
A PMLA offence was registered against Mallya and investigated after the CBI registered a case against him under Sections 13 (2) and 13 (1)(D) of the Prevention of Corruption Act read with Section 120 B, 420 and 409 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the complaint of the consortium of banks led by the SBI. The efforts made to seek extradition of Mallya have got a major boost with the UK Home Office signing an order approving his extradition to India.
