Mallya took away ₹9,000 Cr, but Govt recovered ₹14,000 Cr from his assets: Says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is looking forward to seeking his second term in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2019 spoke highly on the achievements of his BJP-led NDA government in the last five years where he cited how money was recovered from Vijay Mallya who fled from the country after deceiving Indian banks worth Rs.9,000 crore.

“We brought in a law that enabled the Indian government to confiscate the property of fugitives in any part of the world. You must’ve seen in the case of Vijay Mallya. He owed banks Rs 9000 crore but the government has confiscated his properties worth Rs 14,000 crore from across the world. Now, he is in trouble because we are taking double the amount,” added PM Modi in an exclusive interview to Republic Media Network’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.

PM Modi (Credits: DNA India)

Mallya, who had taken plenty of loans from Indian banks during the UPA regime, escape the country in 2016. But the ruling government came up with strict laws, which saw Kingfisher boss being termed in ‘economic offender’ category, which means that Indian agencies could legally seize his assets or properties to recover the loan amount, besides making constant efforts to bring him back to India.

Earlier this year in February, UK Secretary of State, Sajid Javid, signed the order for the extradition of liquor baron Vijay Mallya to India, which came few months after Westminster Magistrates’ court passed an order against Mallya for fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.

Such severe action by the agencies forced the liquor baron into pleading before the Indian government to accept his request to return the money, and not label him as an economic offender. He recently took to his Twitter handle against the ruling party, alleging he has been subjected to unfair treatment.

“I invested over 4000 crores into Kingfisher Airlines to save the Company and its employees. Not recognised and instead slammed in every possible way. The same PSU Banks let India’s finest airline with the best employees and connectivity fail ruthlessly. Double standards under NDA.

And I repeat once again that I have placed liquid assets before the Hon’ble Karnataka High Court to pay off the PSU Banks and all other creditors. Why do the Banks not take my money? It will help them to save Jet Airways if nothing else,” Vijay Mallya wrote.

Mrityunjay Chaubey is the editor in chief at The Youth. He hails from Indore. Before The Youth, He worked for Indian Defence News as a columnist and was a reporter at two other sports portals.