Vijay Mallya Vows to Pay up Dues, Cites 2016 Letter to PM Narendra Modi

New Delhi, Jun 26: Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Tuesday released a statement in which he vowed to settle bank dues. "I respectfully say that I have made and continue to make every effort, in good faith to settle with the Public Sector Banks. If politically motivated extraneous factors interfere, there is nothing that I can do. I am tired of this relentless pursuit of me by the government and its criminal agencies," Mallya said.

In his statement, Vijay Mallya said he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 and was making it public to make things in right perspective. "I wrote letters to both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister on 15th April 2016 and am making these letters public to put things in the right perspective. No response was received from either of them," he said.

Mallya fled to Britain in March 2016 after being pursued for recovery of Rs 8,191 crore owed to a consortium of 17 Indian banks by his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines. He has been living in London since then despite summons from Indian courts and law enforcement agencies to appear before them for trial in various cases.

The Indian government had in February this year, handed over to British authorities a formal request for Mallya's extradition, saying it had a legitimate case against him on charges of financial irregularities and loan default.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 26, 2018 02:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).