London: Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya dropped a big bomb on the government as Mallya on Wednesday claimed that he had met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley before he fled to London and he also offered to settle with the bank.
“I met the Finance Minister before I left,” claimed fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya outside London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court where his extradition case is being heard.
#WATCH “I met the Finance Minister before I left, repeated my offer to settle with the banks”, says Vijay Mallya outside London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court pic.twitter.com/5wvLYItPQf
— ANI (@ANI) September 12, 2018
ALSO READ: Congress, TDP, CPI form alliance for Telangana assembly elections
When Mallya left India in March 2016, Arun Jaitley was holding the post of Union Finance Minister.
To a reporter’s question that if somebody tipped him off, Mallya said: “I had a scheduled meeting in Geneva. I met the Finance Minister before I left, repeated my offer to settle with the banks.”
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley denied Mallya’s claims.
“The statement is factually false in as much as it does not reflect the truth. Since 2014, I’ve never given him an appointment to meet me&the question of his having met me does not arise,” Jaitley said.
Mallya is sought by India for allegedly defaulting on bank loans to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore.