Vijay Mallya first interview after bank debt controversy: 'I am forced in exile, have no intention to go back'

Indian business tycoon Vijay Mallya who is currently running residing in London has said that he has been ‘forced to live in exile’. Mallya said while speaking to a London based business daily.

In his interview given to the London based business daily Financial Times, Mallya said that he wants to return to the country and lead his normal life.    

Mallya said that he has always shown his intention make a settlement with the banks.

“We have always been in dialogue with banks saying: ‘We wish to settle’. But we wish to settle at a reasonable number that we can afford and banks can justify on the basis of settlements done before.”

He also expressed his opinions on the role of media in the country.

“It is important to understand the environment in India today. The electronic media is playing a huge role not just in moulding public opinion but in inflaming the government to a very large extent.”

“I definitely would like to return to India. Right now, things are flying at me fast and furious. My passport has been revoked. I don’t know what the government is going to do next,” he told the Financial Times.

Mallya, 60, said he remains an Indian patriot, who is “proud to fly the Indian flag”, but as the outcry around him continues, he is more than happy to stay safe in the UK and has no plans to leave that country.

“It is important to understand the environment in India today. The electronic media is playing a huge role not just in moulding public opinion, but in inflaming the government to a very large extent,” he said in what FT termed as a four-hour interview in Mayfair, Central London.  The Indian government yesterday wrote to Britain seeking deportation of the liquor baron against whom a non-bailable warrant has been issued in a money-laundering investigation. 

Mallya, who flew first class from Delhi to London on March 2 as a group of state-owned banks knocked on the door of the Supreme Court to recover about Rs 9,000 crore owed by his collapsed Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, said he was “absolutely not guilty of any of these preposterous charges of diverting funds from Kingfisher, buying properties or stuff like that”. 

The government, he said, can appoint the world’s best forensic auditor to audit the accounts of Kingfisher and audit how banks loans were utilised. “I am sure they are not going to find anything, because that’s the truth.”

He said he has always maintained that “notwithstanding anything else”, he was interested in settlement with Kingfisher bankers.

Asked who was behind his woes, he said, “I wish I knew.” Pressed if the people after him were bureaucrats or Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, “All I can say is the manner in which my passport was first suspended and then revoked was done in an extraordinary haste.”

“First, notice of suspension came on a public holiday last week... I replied. And my reply was not considered and the passport was revoked on Saturday,” he said.