Mallya files police complaint against Sunday Guardian

The newspaper had carried an interview that quoted Mallya saying that the time was not ripe for him to return to India

UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya on Tuesday said that he has filed a complaint with the Cyber Police Station in Mumbai against what he calls a fake interview with him by the Sunday Guardian newspaper.

“I have not given any e-mail or any other interview to anyone, including the Sunday Guardian. The e-mail account that has been attributed to me does not belong to me. Every comment, therefore, is fabricated. I have filed a complaint with the Cyber Police Station in Mumbai,” Mallya said, but did not specify on whether the complaint has been lodged against the newspaper.

The newspaper had carried an interview that quoted Mallya, currently in the UK, saying that the time was not ripe for him to return to India.

Mallya is under attack for his failure to repay loans of over Rs 9,000 crores taken to run the defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The UB Group chairman has legal loopholes to delay court cases against him for recovery of the loans. India's top investigation agencies such as Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation and the Income Tax Department are looking at money laundering by Mallya from the money he raised from banks such as IDBI Bank.

Mallya said the editor of Sunday Guardian has publicly admitted on twitter that he would investigate the matter as this tantamounts to fraud and needs to be seriously investigated. The paper had defended the interview and shared the email trail with a Mallya e-mail id on its website.

"I have  asked colleague Joyeeta Basu and Pankaj Vohra to examine all the facts concerning the Mallya interview," Madhav Das Nalapat, editorial director at the Sunday Guardian said on the microblogging site twitter.

Sunday Guardian is founded by BJP spokesperson M J Akbar. Mallya owned the franchisee of  Akbar's earlier paper the Asian Age in a few cities before it was sold to Deccan Chronicle.