Vijay Mallya defends move to settle dues, says the offer was genuine

In his heydays, Vijay Malla never left any opportunity to grab the eyeballs. Even now also when he is in foreign shores owing millions of rupees to multiple banks in India, his penchant for hogging limelight continues.

A day after he made public a letter written to the prime minister offering to settle dues selling his assets under judicial supervision, the embattled liquor baron on Wednesday tried to dispel doubts over his intentions on microblogging platform twitter.  

In a series of tweets, Mallya said that there should not be any suspicion on the timing of his offer as he along with United Breweries Holdings Ltd (UBHL) has moved to the High Court requesting its intervention for sale of assets.

While denying the Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s recent move to declare him a fugitive offender as the trigger for such offer, the 62-year-old businessman said he was genuine in his offer.

"It is incorrect that my settlement offer before the Karnataka HC was motivated by the latest charge sheet under the media reported Fugitive Ordinance. I always had honest intentions to settle and there is ample proof. Anyway, I hope the sale of assets is approved for banks," Mallya said in a tweet.

Breaking his silence after two years, Mallya on Tuesday had said that he had moved to Karnataka High Court seeking its permission to sell assets worth Rs 139 billion for repayment to creditors.

As this has come a week after the ED moved to a Mumbai court to declare Mallya as a fugitive offender and confiscate assets worth Rs 125 billion, industry watchers have suspected the motive behind such move.

"Some people have been asking why I chose to make a statement at this time. I have made my statement because UBHL and myself have filed an application before the Karnataka High Court on June 22, 2018, setting out available assets of approximately Rs 139 billion," he tweeted.

Any objection by ED or CBI to such offer for selling assets should be construed as an agenda against me, Mallya added. "I continue to make every effort, in good faith to settle with the banks. If politically motivated factors interfere, there is nothing I can do," he added.

The former liquor baron also disputed the claim of government agencies tagging him as economic offender. "When I have placed assets on the table before the Karnataka High Court in excess of the PSU Bank claims, how can I be an Economic Offender? The Fugitive part falls away," he tweeted.

Mallya fled the country in March, 2016 and has since been living in London despite numerous summons from Indian courts and law enforcement agencies. He is currently contesting cases against the Indian government's moves to extradite him to the country for facing trial.  

He owes more than Rs 90 billion to a consortium of lenders, mostly public sector banks, and has recently been accused of money laundering of Rs 99.90 billion by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).