Indian entrepreneur Vijay Mallya, who left the country as banks sought to recover more than US$1 billion owed by his collapsed Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, has rejected suggestions he was an absconder and said he respected the law of the land.
Mallya, a former billionaire who built his fortune on Kingfisher Beer and a current member of parliament, left India last week. More than a dozen banks — led by the country’s biggest, State Bank of India — had appealed to the Indian Supreme Court asking that he be prevented from leaving.
“I am an international businessman,” Mallya said in a series of postings on his official Twitter account yesterday. “I travel to and from India frequently. I did not flee from India and neither am I an absconder.”
Photo: Reuters
Indian media has reported that Mallya, who is a guarantor to the Kingfisher Airlines debt, is in Britain and have said that he could be staying in a luxury residence in Hertfordshire, north of London.
The businessman did not mention his location in his tweets, but said that as a member of parliament he would fully comply with the law.
Kingfisher, once India’s second-biggest airline, stopped flying in October 2012, leaving creditors, suppliers and employees unpaid. It owed banks 90.91 billion rupees (US$1.4 billion) at the end of November.
The Kingfisher creditors stepped up efforts to recover the debt after Mallya last month resigned as chairman of spirits maker United Spirits Ltd, a unit of Diageo PLC. As part of that settlement, Diageo will pay Mallya US$75 million over a five-year period.
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