MALLYA OFFERS TO PAY BANKS BACK AGAIN, THIS TIME TO PM

LONDON: Contesting India’s extradition bid in UK courts, controversial businessman Vijay Mallya on Thursday again took to Twitter to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to instruct Indian banks to take his money against unpaid loans extended to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

“I respectfully ask why the Prime Minister is not instructing his Banks to take the money I have put on the table so he can at least claim credit for full recovery of public funds lent to Kingfisher,” he said in a series of tweets.

Mallya’s latest statements add to his often repeated claim inside and outside the courts that he is willing to settle with Indian banks, but that for unexplained reasons his offer was not being taken up. This reluctance, he has suggested, could be for political reasons.

Mallya’s legal team is in the process of applying for leave to appeal in the Court of Appeal against the home secretary’s February 4 decision to extradite him to India, based on a December 10 ruling by the Westminster Magistrates Court. He has 14 working days since February 4 to apply.

Mallya flew to the UK in March 2016 as creditors closed in on him to recover ~9,000 crore owed to them by Kingfisher Airlines.he faces charges of fraud and money laundering in India.

Last month, in a Twitter post, he“humbly requested” various banks to take back all the money he borrowed to keep Kingfisher Airlines afloat.