Did Mallya meet Jaitley?
British judge to rule in Indian businessman’s extradition case on December 10
Embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya said yesterday that he met the finance minister before leaving India, a claim denied by Arun Jaitley as “factually false.”
The 62-year-old former Kingfisher Airline boss was asked by reporters if he was “tipped off” to leave the country.
“I left because I had a scheduled meeting in Geneva. I met the finance minister before I left, repeated my offer to settle with the banks. That is the truth,” he responded, without naming the minister.
Jaitley, who was the Finance Minister in 2016 when Mallya left India, denied the liquor baron’s claim.
“Since 2014, I have never given him any appointment to meet me and the question of his having met me does not arise,” Jaitley said in a Facebook post.
“The statement is factually false in as much as it does not reflect truth,” he asserted.
Jaitley said Mallya “misused” the privilege of being a Rajya Sabha MP to catch him in corridors of parliament on one occasion while he was walking out of the House to go to his room.
He said Mallya, while walking alongside, “uttered a sentence that ‘I am making an offer of settlement’. Having been fully briefed about his ‘bluff offers’, without allowing him to proceed with the conversation, I curtly told him ‘there was no point talking to me and he must make offers to his bankers.’”
Meanwhile, the ruling on whether Mallya can be extradited from Britain to India to face fraud charges will be given on December 10, England’s Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot said yesterday.
Adefiant Vijay Mallya, who is facing money laundering charges in multibillion fraud case in India, yesterday said he had made a “comprehensive settlement” offer before the Karnataka High Court that would help in paying off all his dues.
The remarks by Mallya came as he arrived at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court for a hearing in his extradition case.
The ruling on whether Mallya can be extradited from Britain to India to face fraud charges will be given on December 10, the judge said yesterday, after she heard closing submissions.
The 62-year-old former Kingfisher Airline boss, who has been on bail on an extradition warrant since his arrest in April last year, responded to the swarm of reporters gathered outside the court in his characteristic manner, saying the “courts will decide”.
“I hope the honourable judges will consider it favourably; everybody gets paid off and I guess that’s the primary objective,” said Mallya, who is fighting extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs90 billion (Dh4.5 billion).
According to Mallya, he and the United Breweries Group (UBHL) have filed an application in the Karnataka High Court on June 22, 2018, setting out available assets of approximately Rs139 billion. They have asked the court for permission to allow the sale of assets under judicial supervision and repay creditors, including the Public Sector Banks such amounts as may be directed and determined by the Court.
Lost separate appeal
The extradition trial is aimed at laying out a prima facie case of fraud against Mallya.
It also seeks to prove there are no “bars to extradition” and that the tycoon is assured a fair trial in India over his nowdefunct Kingfisher Airlines’ alleged default of over Rs90 billion in loans from a consortium of Indian banks. In separate legal proceedings, the businessman lost his appeal in the UK’s Court of Appeal against a High Court order in favour of 13 Indian banks to recover funds amounting to nearly £1.14 billion (Dh5.4 billion).