Internet Desk: Fugitive Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya, who is wanted in India on loan defaults to several banks, today claimed that he has not diverted any of the borrowed money to Royal Challengers Bangalore that he owned in the IPL and advised reporters to “keep dreaming about the billions of pounds” that he had allegedly diverted. Mallya appeared before a Westminster magistrate court on Tuesday and later he told the media that he was happy as he could be able to put up his case before a “fair and impartial” court in London.
The 61-year old liquor baron came to the with his son Siddharth Mallya, where he turned down all allegations of default loan against him and denied he was mocked by the spectators who called him a thief during India’s Champions Trophy match against South Africa at the Oval on Sunday.
“I am not going to answer any questions. There is a court of law. We will make submissions before the appropriate court of law,” he told reporters.
“You can keep dreaming about billions of pounds, provided you have facts to justify your questions. Otherwise, don’t put questions. Don’t ask irrelevant questions,” he said, when asked whether he had diverted the borrowed money to IPL team Royal Challengers, which he used to own.
When a British reporter asked him about the multiple flats he has in here, he shot back: “Multiple homes in UK – I have been living here since 1992.”
Mallya said he was here to defend himself as was expected.
“Were you in the court? Did you hear what the prosecution said, what my lawyers said and what the judge said?” he asked, refusing to go into what happened inside the court.
But when a reporter asked him about the “chor, chor” (thief) chants hurled at him during an India-South Africa match last week, Mallya said: “I was not called a thief. As two people in a drunken state yelled at me, didn’t you notice that there were several others who wished me well.”
He remarked that when he went to cheer the Indian cricket team in the Champions Trophy, it “became a media sensation”. “I go to cheer India in a cricket match and it becomes a media frenzy. It’s better I don’t say anything.”
Asked if he was relieved at being told by the court not to come for the next hearing on July 6, he said: “I do not want to say anything about what happened inside the court.
“I am delighted that I can put forward my case before an impartial court,” he said.