New Delhi, Sep 12 (UNI) Refuting liquor baron Vijay Mallya's sensational claim that he met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with an offer of settlement, the minister said the 'statement is factually false in as much as it does not reflect truth'.
Making a clarification on social media Facebook, Mr Jaitley wrote, 'My attention has been drawn to a statement made to the media by Vijay Mallya on having met me with an offer of settlement. The statement is factually false in as much as it does not reflect truth.'
He said since 2014, he have never given Mallya any appointment to meet him and the question of his having met me does not arise.
'However, since he was a Member of Rajya Sabha and he occasionally attended the House, he misused that privilege on one occasion while I was walking out of the House to go to my room. He paced up to catch up with me and while walking uttered a sentence that ”I am making an offer of settlement”,' the minister said.
Having been fully briefed about his earlier “bluff offers”, without allowing him to proceed with the conversation, Mr Jaitley said 'I curtly told him 'there was no point talking to me and he must make offers to his bankers'.
'I did not even receive the papers that he was holding in his hand. Besides this one sentence exchange where he misused his privilege as a Rajya Sabha Member, in order to further his commercial interest as a bank debtor, there is no question of my having ever given him an appointment to me.'
Earlier in the day, Mallya, outside London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court, which is hearing his extradition case, said he had met Mr Jaitley and offered to settle his financial dues before leaving India.
Mallya is currently facing charges of fraud and money laundering to the tune of around Rs 9,000 crore in India.
UNI RSA SHK1933