Fugitive business tycoon Vijay Mallya, who fled the country in 2016 to take refugee in the United Kingdom amid allegations of financial irregularities related to Kingfisher Airlines, slammed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman through his post on X. This comes after a day of her statement in the parliament that banks recovered close to 14,131.60 Crores liquidated from the assets of Vijay Mallya to offset his debts including interests.
Nirmala Sitaraman announced in the Loksabha during the ongoing winter sessions that the amount was recovered by public sector banks from the sale of assets belonging to Vijay Mallya. She added this exercise is a part of the government’s ongoing efforts to address financial crimes and to restore funds to the effected entities. It is a known fact that Mallya’s assets worth crores have been seized under Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
In response to FM’s statement, Mallya took to X and took a dig at her. He posted, “The FM announced in Parliament that through the ED,Banks have recovered ₹14,131.60 crore from me against the judgement debt of ₹6203 crore and I am still an economic offender. Unless the ED and Banks can legally justify how they have taken more than two times the debt, I am entitled to relief which I will pursue”.
The Finance Minister also said that notorious diamond merchant Nirav Modi’s properties worth ₹1,052.58 crore were restored to banks following ED action, and businessman Mehul Choksi’s properties worth ₹2,565.90 crore attached for auction.
While there is some rationale behind Vijay Mallya’s frustration and his request to exempt him from the tag of Economic Offender, he should understand that mere recovery from sale of his assets doesn’t absolve him from the financial frauds he committed, leaving hundreds of employees high and dry.