Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, who is facing various fraud charges in India, has recently denied allegations of theft while also issuing a rare public apology to his erstwhile employees for the failure of Kingfisher Airlines.
The podcast with Raj Shamani
In a four-hour-long podcast with popular YouTuber Raj Shamani, Mallya claimed he has “valid" reasons for not returning to India.
He said he would consider returning to his country if he were assured of a fair trial and “dignified existence" in the country.
Mallya apologises
“I apologise to everyone for the failure of Kingfisher Airlines," Mallya said on Thursday.
The former business tycoon acknowledged that it was “fair" to call him a fugitive but questioned the term “thief" used for him in the political corridors.
“Call me a fugitive for not going to India post-March 2016. I didn’t run away, I flew out of India on a prescheduled visit. Fair enough, I did not return for reasons that I consider are valid, so if you want to call me a fugitive, go ahead, but where is the ‘chor’ coming from? Where is the ‘chori’?" Mallya said.
“You talk about money siphoning, using Kingfisher money for my lifestyle, for Formula 1, but nobody talks about the money I infused in cash to keep it afloat,” he claimed in the podcast.
The fugitive liquor baron claimed to have made four settlement offers between 2012, following the collapse of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, and 2015, which the banks “refused to accept”.
“It was always my intention to settle. Never did I say I didn’t want to pay,” Mallya shared in the podcast with Raj Shamani, his first since 2013.
The former owner of Kingfisher Airlines claimed that he had met the chairperson of the State Bank of India at their training academy in Hyderabad and offered a settlement, which was not accepted.
“They wanted the Rs 14,000 crore which is why they didn’t accept,” he added.
Responding to Shamani’s query on the reasons behind the downfall of Kingfisher Airlines, Mallya said a group of 15 to 16 government banks were part of the consortium of lenders. “Kingfisher Airlines never borrowed any money from SBI. Just to set the record straight,” he said.
Earlier in February this year, Mallya, through his counsel, told the Karnataka High Court that the banks have already recovered Rs 14,000 crore, more than double the original debt of Rs 6,200 crore owed.
What are the allegations against Vijay Mallya?
The former Kingfisher Airlines owner is facing charges of allegedly defaulting on loans worth over Rs 9,000 crore that were given to Kingfisher Airlines by a group of Indian banks. Mallya has been maintaining his stance of denying any wrongdoing, and residing in the United Kingdom since 2016, where he is facing extradition proceedings.
In a post on X after the podcast episode was released, Mallya wrote: “For those who are interested, I have spoken for the first time in nine years on this podcast. I want to say sorry to employees of Kingfisher Airlines and also to set the record straight with facts and the truth.”
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