Liquor Baron Vijay Mallya, whose passport has been suspended, has rebutted allegations that he drained off nearly half of a 900-crore loan to his Kingfisher Airlines, to acquire property abroad.
Mallya, 60, who took off to London early in March, has so far refused to be present in Mumbai for interrogation in connection with a loan permitted to him in 2009 by state-run IDBI. The Enforcement Directorate, which deals in financial crimes, has asked a Mumbai court to issue an arrest warrant for Mallya, who, it alleges, spent 430 crores of his IDBI loan illegitimately to buy an overseas property.
In total, Mallya’s Kingfsiher Airlines, grounded since 2012, owes nearly 9,000 crores to different banks who have said that he must be present physically to negotiate how he will pay them back. Mallya has so far offered a series of proposals to them via video-conference, which have been rejected.
A UB group spokesman said today, “The audited accounts of Kingfisher Airlines including for the year ended (March 2010) show all foreign exchange transactions which includes funds borrowed from IDBI Bank used for legitimate business purposes only.”
Mallya, a Rajya Sabha parliamentarian, owns a diplomatic passport which was suspended last week, seen as a first step towards efforts to have him expatriated if he does not return home.