New Delhi: Fugitive business magnate Vijay Mallya on Thursday, in quite an unusual but assertive note sought to include Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his issue and wondered why the latter was "not instructing" the banks to take the money he has offered to pay back. "I respectfully ask why the Prime Minister is not instructing his Banks to take the money I have put on the table so he can at least claim credit for full recovery of public funds lent to Kingfisher", wrote the fugitive businessman Mr Mallya in a series of tweets.
The business tycoon, who has been ordered by the UK government for extradition to India said, "The Prime Minister's last speech in Parliament (in Lok Sabha on Wednesday) was brought to my attention. He certainly is a very eloquent speaker. I noticed that he referred to an unnamed person who ‘ran away’ with 9000 crores. Given the media narrative I can only infer that reference is to me".
In this context Mr Mallya wrote - "I have made the offer to settle before the Hon'ble High Court Court of Karnataka. This cannot be dismissed as frivolous. It is a perfectly tangible, sincere, honest and readily achievable offer. The shoe is on the other foot now. Why don't the Banks take the money lent to KFA?" He also said that he is "appalled" to say the least at the media reports on the Enforcement Directorate claims "that I hid my wealth. If there was hidden wealth how could I put approximately Rs 14,000 crores worth of assets openly in front of Court? Shameful misleading of public opinion but unsurprising."
The ED has accused Mr Mallya of money laundering and he has also been charged with defrauding a consortium of banks to a total of Rs 9,000 crore apart from cases of tax evasion.