Business tycoon Vijay Mallya on Thursday asked Supreme Court “Why have I been made the poster boy for loan defaulters?”
As his debts mount and his properties stay attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Mallya accused the judiciary of targetting him, of treating him worse than a terrorist with no access to the rule of law.
“Why is my case unique? Why am I targetted when the banks have seven lakh crore rupees worth of non-performing assets?” senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, representing Mallya, confronted the court in a day-long hearing.
The Bench of Justices A K Goel and UU Lalit reserved for final orders an application by a consortium of 13 banks led by State Bank of India, which had lent thousands of crores to Mr. Mallya over a period.
Mallya, who is believed to be in the UK, owes Rs 9200 crore to his banks, Rs 8000 crore worth of properties have been attached under the anti money laundering law and he has income tax dues of about Rs 2000 crores.
“I have no property of which I have any control. Everything has been attached. I have nothing,” Vaidynathan submitted.
In the present case, the banks had approached the Supreme Court accusing Mallya of secreting away $40 million that he received from British liquor major Diageo Plc following his resignation as Chairman of United Spirits Limited in February 2016. The banks accused Mallya of contempt of court as he did not disclose this 40 million (Rs. 600 crore) among the assets the Supreme Court had ordered him to reveal so that the banks could recover the loan amount.
Mallya, in turn, had replied that the $40 million was one among “thousands of transactions” he did and not counted as an asset.
