Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya has said he is being punished for living a "Kingsize" life with his own money, as he shared extracts of a Karnataka High Court Division Bench order on Wednesday.
"Am I still a Chor or Cheat?" Mallya wrote, asking followers to read the order carefully.
"I lived life Kingsize with my own money and that was my biggest crime for which I am being punished," he said. "There is a God above for all of us. Someday Justice will prevail."
The page he shared is from a judgment of 2018, heard along with that of 2017. In the extract, the bench refers to the Finance Minister's statement in the Lok Sabha on December 17, 2024.
According to that statement, assets worth Rs 14,131.6 crore, besides the shares in United Breweries Ltd (UBL), have been restored from Mallya to the Consortium of Banks.
The banks' claim against the loan advanced to the defunct Kingfisher Airlines was Rs 6,203 crore with interest.
The bench said that with the banks' dues almost settled through recoveries of more than twice the loan amount, there would be "no justification" for their claim over the UBL shares.
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It added that it was for the Consortium of Banks and the Government of India to give quietus to the proceedings.
The same passage also carries a sharp observation on Mallya himself. The bench said his "flamboyant lifestyle, excessive personal indulgence and his personal vanity" were coming in the way of ending the banks' claims.
This appears to be the line Mallya is responding to with his remark about living "Kingsize".
Mallya, the former chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, left India in 2016 and lives in the UK. He was declared a fugitive economic offender in 2019, and India has long sought his extradition over alleged loan defaults and money laundering.
He has consistently said he offered to repay the banks and that the recoveries should be set against the debt.
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Kingfisher Airlines, founded by Mallya, stopped flying in October 2012 after building up heavy debts to a consortium of Indian banks. Mallya left India on March 2, 2016, as the lenders moved to recover their dues.
The CBI had already registered a case in July 2015 over a Rs 900 crore loan from IDBI Bank to the airline, and the Enforcement Directorate later chargesheeted him in money laundering cases.
The ED alleges he diverted much of the money into foreign assets, an IPL team and a Formula One firm. Media reports have long put the dues at over Rs 9,000 crore.
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