New Delhi: Even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley claimed in Parliament on Thursday that banks are going to take every possible action to recover the loan amount (Rs 9,000 crore inclusive of interest) from the beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, main Opposition the Congress launched an all-out attack on the NDA Government, accusing it of allowing him to leave the country. Congress MPs led by party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi staged a walkout from Lok Sabha over the issue.
While Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad charged the Government with not confiscating Mr Mallya’s passport and also not arresting him even as several agencies were interrogating him, Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha echoed similar sentiments.
Meanwhile while speaking on the controversial issue in both the Houses, Mr Jaitley said that the banks have been asked to recover “every penny that is due”, adding that the first banking facility was given to Mallya and his companies in September 2004 which were renewed in February 2008.
On Ghulam Nabi Azad's contention that the present government had failed to bring back Lalit Modi, Jaitley said it was during the UPA rule that the former IPL chief had left the country. Meanwhile, according to agency reports, Mr Mallya, is believed to be at his country home in an English village about an hour’s drive north of London.
The UB Group chairman and Rajya Sabha member is thought to have driven to his ‘Ladywalk’ estate in the village of Tiwen near St Albans in Hertfordshire from his London home near Baker Street area earlier this week. A Supreme Court notice for him to return to India is expected to be served to him via the Indian High Commission in London some time this week, sources said.
