On a day when reports surfaced of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "helping" Vijay Mallya secure loans from public sector banks, the embattled businessman blamed external factors for the grounding of debt-laden Kingfisher Airlines (KFA).
Read: Karnataka HC issues bailable warrant against Vijay Mallya in contempt case
The now-defunct KFA lost its flying licence after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) refused to renew its Air Operator Permit on December 31, 2012.
"KFA collapsed with oil at $140/barrel and State sales tax on top Rupee devaluation No FDI Engine failures. Economic depression need more?", he tweeted on Friday.
Vijay Mallya, along with KFA, is accused of defaulting on loan repayments to banks, most of whom are public sector lenders, including the State Bank of India and IDBI Bank. Besides, employees and vendors of KFA have also made claims that they have not been their salaries/supply bills, respectively.
News18 reported that Manmohan Singh allegedly bailed out KFA during 2011, citing correspondence between Mallya and his employees.
"Thank you for sparing time to meet me on September 8th to explain the... difficulties being faced by Kingfisher Airlines. I had also informed your goodself that we had approached our consortium of Banks, led by State Bank of India to grant us additional financial support urgently. You had asked me to follow up with Mr TKA Nair, which I did and I am deeply appreciative of the fact that Mr Nair immediately spoke to the concerned people in the Ministries involved... (sic)," the channel reported, referring to letter written by Mallya to Singh on October 4, 2011.
There were mails written to CFO Nedungadi in March 2013 as well, appraising him of the developments in seeking loans for KFA and progress in arranging meetings with SBI, Bengaluru.
On Friday, Mallya tweeted that the then UPA government should have offered bail-out package to KFA similar to national carrier Air India.
And KFA being the largest domestic Airline was the worst hit. Government bailed out Air India but did not bail out KFA.So much for "favours"
— Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) January 27, 2017
KFA collapsed with oil at $ 140/barrel and State sales tax on top Rupee devaluation No FDI Engine failures. Economic depression Need more ?
— Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) January 27, 2017
Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw defended Mallya for seeking Singh's help to save KFA, saying there was nothing abnormal in it.
Didn't the Big Banks seek a bail out by the US Govt in 2008? Nothing wrong in what he did in seeking help from PM & FM https://t.co/0i41403Bnw
— Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (@kiranshaw) January 27, 2017
Shaw is a director of United Breweries Ltd since October 2009.
A few days ago, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested former chairman of IDBI Bank Yogesh Aggarwal along with four other ex-IDBI Bank officials and former CFO of Kingfisher Airlines A. Raghunathan in connection with the Rs 900 crore loan default case.
The arrests on Tuesday followed raids at various places in Bengaluru including UB Towers in Bengaluru and residences of Aggarwal and Raghunathan, apart from others.
