Who does one believe: Vijay Mallya takes a dig at PM Modi, banks

NEW DELHI: Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the latter recently claimed that the government has recovered more money than former owes to banks. 

In a tweet, Mallya questioned Modi's claims asking: "None other than the Prime Minister of India specifically says in an interview that his Government has recovered more money than I allegedly owe PSU Banks and the same Banks claim otherwise in English Courts. Who does one believe? One or the other is lying."

PM Modi had in an interview reportedly said that Mallya's extradition process was in the last stage and the government has recovered money from him. "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," the Prime Minister had said.

Mallya had on Wednesday expressed solidarity with cash-strapped Jet Airways. Questioning government's decision to use Rs 35,000 crore of public funds to bail out Air India, he said: "Even though Jet was a major competitor to Kingfisher at the time I feel sorry to see such a large private airline on the brink of failure when Government used 35K crores of public funds to bail out Air India. Just being a PSU is no excuse for discrimination."

Mallya is facing trial for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 9,000 crore. He is currently facing trial at a London court. A United Kingdom court had on April 8 denied him the permission to appeal against his extradition order to India to face trial for alleged fraud and money laundering.