India has suspended the passport of billionaire Vijay Mallya, who is in the UK at a time when banks are struggling to recover nearly a billion dollars owed by his Kingfisher Airlines.
Mr Mallya, 60, has defied several requests asking him to return to Mumbai for interrogation. His lawyers have said that he is making himself available in video-conferences to banks, and therefore, his presence in India is not necessary.
In repeated tweets, Mr Mallya, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, has said he is not an absconder. As a parliamentarian, he has a diplomatic passport, which is suspended for a month, said the government today. He has been given a week to explain why it should not be revoked.
A group of 18 banks, most of them state-run, have turned down two offers by Mr Mallya to pay off their loans in installments. They said that Mr Mallya must meet them in person for negotiations.
Last week, Mr Mallya, who had guaranteed the Kingfisher loans, proposed to pay 4,000 crores to the lenders by September, and another 2,000 crores if Kingfisher wins a lawsuit seeking damages from a plane engine-maker.
The banks approached the Supreme Court towards the end of February asking for Mr Mallya to be stopped from traveling abroad; however, the government then revealed that he had already flown to London.
Mr Mallya's passport has been suspended because he has "stopped cooperating with investigators", said sources in the Enforcement Directorate, which wants to question him about money-laundering in a 900-crore loan from IDBI, a state-run bank.
Mr Mallya, once called the "King of Good Times" for his extravagant lifestyle, set up Kingfisher Airlines in 2003. After collecting huge financial losses, it stopped functioning in 2012; former employees are still owed wages.