Vijay Mallya on Wednesday rejected being called a “bhagoda”, saying he is legally barred from leaving the UK and had been living in Britain long before his legal troubles with Indian authorities began.
In a post on X, Mallya wrote, "For all who say I am a bhagoda refusing to come to India, please be aware that I have been a permanent resident of the United Kingdom since 1992 and am currently legally prohibited from leaving this country."
For all who say I am a bhagoda refusing to come to India, please be aware that I have been a permanent resident of the United Kingdom since 1992 and am currently legally prohibited from leaving this country. All this started with poster boy actions by the Government of India who…
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— Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) September 8, 2026
He added that "this started with poster boy actions by the Government of India," which he described as "grossly unjust" in his case.
The former Kingfisher Airlines chairman has been fighting extradition to India since 2017 over fraud and money-laundering charges linked to unpaid loans of roughly Rs 9,000 crore taken by the now-defunct airline from a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India.
He left India in March 2016, days before the loan default came to light, a departure that has repeatedly drawn the "bhagoda" label from Indian politicians and on social media.
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Mallya has long disputed the fugitive tag, previously telling courts and reporters that he did not flee the country but had travelled for a scheduled business engagement.
He has also claimed to have offered to repay the “principal amount” owed to the banks in full, but Indian authorities have not accepted the offer, saying the recovery process must go through the courts.
A UK court had earlier ruled in favour of extraditing Mallya to India, though the process has been held up by a separate, undisclosed legal matter widely believed to relate to an asylum application.
Indian banks have also pursued a parallel bankruptcy order against him in the UK, which he has continued to contest through appeals.
Mallya's comments come as he continues to face criticism in India, where he has been called a “bhagoda” since leaving the country in 2016. His extradition case is still pending in the UK, with a separate legal matter holding up his return to India.
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