Vijay Mallya offers to return 100% of public money
The HinduIndian businessman Vijay Mallya has made another public intervention to persuade Indian authorities to accept his settlement before the Karnataka High Court, ahead of next week when a judge at Westminster Magistrate’s Court is due to deliver her verdict on India’s attempt to extradite him from the UK. In a series of tweets on Wednesday morning, Mr. Mallya, who is facing a number of legal battles in London, pointed to the “thousands of crores” of rupees the Kingfisher drinks group had contributed to public coffers both national and at a state basis for three decades, while insisting that Kingfisher Airline’s woes related to high aviation fuel prices. The contention that Mr. Mallya’s default on loans from a consortium of banks including IDBI, resulted from an unprecedentedly tough climate for the aviation sector, amid staggeringly high oil prices has been a central argument used in the businessman’s defence during the extradition case. During the hearings in London that commenced in December last year, and concluded in mid-September, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service, which represents India in their attempt to extradite Mr. Mallya, had argued that he had never intended to repay the loan, used false grounds to obtain them, and then used funds for purposes they had never been intended, while attempting to squirrel away funds.