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The once ‘King of Good Times’ Vijay Mallya, whose extradition to India will be decided on Decided on December 10, has meanwhile to told a special court that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) “resisted” his efforts to settle his loans with public sector banks.
In his reply, Mallya stated that “despite continuing efforts over the last two to three years, when efforts have been made to repay the public sector banks, instead of taking steps to facilitate the process of repayment to banks, the ED has, at every step, resisted this effort”.
Mallya’s reply also stated that the ED’s application, in its endeavour to confiscate assets, is one which is contrary to public and national interest.
Mallya, who is currently in the United Kingdom, has been charged by the ED of defaulting on bank loans to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore.
Meanwhile reacting to the Fugitive charge , Mallya has claimed that for a person to be declared a ‘fugitive’ it is necessary for him to have left India to avoid criminal proceedings. However, he is an NRI so it cannot be said he ‘left’ the country to avoid the clutches of law, since it is officially allowed to live abroad as NRI.
Mallya, through his counsel, was replying in the PMLA court of Judge M S Azmi to an ED application seeking that he be declared a fugitive under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.
