Mallya has no change of heart, law is catching up: BJP

The BJP on Wednesday said Vijay Mallya has had no change of heart and he was not willing to clear his loans as the law was catching up with the fugitive liquor baron.

"This is not a change of heart that he wants to repay the money (to banks) but the fact is that the law is catching up with those who felt entitled to play with the law," spokesperson Sambit Patra told the media.

Mallya, facing a Rs 9,000 crore Kingfisher Airline loan default case, on Tuesday made public a letter he wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 saying he wanted to pay up his dues but had been made the "poster boy" of bank default.

Patra said the corrupt with 'benami' (unaccounted) properties were feeling the heat as the government was bringing in strict laws like the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

He compared the letter by Mallya to Modi with the one the tycoon had written to Manmohan Singh when he was the Prime Minister in 2011 and said while the letter to Modi expressed his unhappiness, the one to Singh thanked him for extending support.

"In his letter to Modi, Mallya said he was unhappy due to CBI, SFIU and ED investigating his case making him a poster boy of bank defaults and public anger. But the one to Manmohan Singh thanked him for facilitating a loan of Rs 550 crore," Patra said.

The BJP leader said the Congress gave him loans but the BJP was working to recover it by seizing his properties and this was making him unhappy.

"Mallya has travelled a long way from the king of good times during the UPA era to becoming the poster boy of bank default and corruption," he said.

Patra questioned Congress President Rahul Gandhi, whose brother-in-law Robert Vadra had been charged with tax evasion. The Income Tax department had served Vadra and his company Sky Light Hospitality a notice to pay Rs 25 crore.

Vadra had disclosed an income of Rs 37 lakh in 2010-11, while a re-evaluation by the IT department said the total income for the financial year was Rs 43 crore.

--IANS

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