After being declared bankrupt by a British court allowing Indian banks to pursue his assets worldwide, Vijay Mallya launched a tirade on Twitter as he accused lenders pursuing of making him bankrupt. “ED attach my assets worth 14K crores at behest of Govt Banks against debt of 6.2K crores.They restore assets to Banks who recover 9K crores in cash and retain security over 5K crores more.Banks ask Court to make me Bankrupt as they may have to return money to the ED. Incredible,” Vijay Mallya tweeted on Monday.
The UK high court press office said in a statement that the companies and insolvency court passed the ruling declaring Vijay Mallya bankrupt, which is being seen as a major victory for the consortium of Indian banks. The consortium of 13 banks lead by the State Bank of India (SBI) can now pursue a worldwide freezing order on Mallya’s assets in a bid to seek the repayment of debts owed by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya has been denied any right to appeal against the bankruptcy decision of the court.Mallya, who fled to the UK and has been fighting on multiple fronts to avoid extradition to India, owes more than ₹9,000 crore to the consortium of banks in principal and interest.
The 65-year-old fugitive businessman remains on bail after he was ordered to be extradited in December 2018 by the Westminster magistrate’s court in London. He has repeatedly tried and failed to overturn the court ruling. He has exhausted legal procedures available to fight the government’s effort to extradite him to India. The UK government is dealing with a “confidential matter” pertaining to Mallya amid speculation he has sought political asylum in the UK.