Mallya also suggested through his tweets that he was ready to negotiate and settle with the banks.

In March 2016, Mallya had offered to settle Rs4,000 crore of the loans with the banks, but the proposal was rejected. The consortium of banks demanded that Mallya return to the country for negotiations, and also declare all the assets he and his family own in order to determine the fair value for a settlement. But Mallya hasn’t done anything of the sort as yet.

Blame game

Absolving himself of any blame for his company’s failures seems to be a favourite strategy of Mallya’s. Since absconding to the UK last March, he has accused everyone from the banks and the media to even the government itself of spreading lies and plotting against him. Kingfisher Airlines shut down in 2012 after years of poor management and heavy borrowing but Mallya had blamed macro-economic factors and government policies for the failure.

Now, banks are starting their own recovery process, seizing his properties back home and auctioning them off. But it hasn’t been easy to make up for the loss. The Kingfisher Villa in Goa, for instance, was auctioned for the third time on March 06 but it failed to attract any bids.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has been striking back, too, with sharp words against Mallya’s decision to reside in the UK.

India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley quipped that the British government’s policies were “liberal enough to permit defaulters to stay here” during a visit to the UK last month.

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