Vijay Mallya, a former businessman who is now facing serious fraud and money laundering charges in India, recently spoke about the large amount of debt in his name during a podcast.
In this rare interview with YouTuber Raj Shamani, Mallya explained the actual loan amount he had taken and tried to clear up some confusion about it.
Many reports said he owed ₹9,000 crore, but Mallya said the official recovery certificate from the debt tribunal shows the loan amount was around ₹6,203 crore (including interest at 11.5%).
This loan is linked to four companies: Kingfisher Airlines, United Breweries, Vijay Mallya himself, and Kingfisher Finvest, Mallya said.
The Indian government has not yet commented on Mallya’s statements from the podcast.
Mallya also said that the government recently reported recovering ₹14,100 crore from him. He said, “I am the one under attack.” He added that he is confused about the ₹9,000 crore figure because the banks never gave him any official loan statement, which he finds strange.
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He claims that banks have already recovered ₹14,000 crore from him and has asked them to share proof of how much money they have actually recovered.
Mallya also addressed the negative labels people use for him. He said, “Call me a fugitive if you want, because I left India after March 2016 and did not return. But don’t call me a thief (‘chor’). I did not run away; I left on a planned trip. So where is the theft (‘chori’)?”
