September 13, 2018: Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya stirred a controversy on Wednesday claiming he had met finance minister Arun Jaitley before fleeing to London, only to backtrack a few hours later saying no formal meeting took place and that he “happened” to meet the minister in Parliament.
Mallya's "clarification" tallied with Jaitley's statement that he had not granted the tycoon any formal appointment since 2014 and that the former liquor baron "misused" access as an MP to accost him in a corridor in Parliament to claim he had made an offer of settlement for outstanding loans.
Jaitley said he told Mallya, who "paced up to him", that an offer, if any, should be made to bankers and denied receiving any papers. After his afternoon remark of meeting Jaitley snowballed into a media storm, Mallya said, "I happened to meet Mr Jaitley in Parliament and I told him I was leaving for London, that I want to settle with the banks and would he please facilitate these discussions. I did not have any formal meeting scheduled with him."
Earlier in the day, Mallya had said he had met Jaitley and repeated his offer to settle loans. His later clarifications came even as Jaitley rebutted his assertion and as opposition parties issued statements claiming the "revelations were an embarrassment for the government. But asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's recent comments that he had allowed to flee, Mallya said he was not tipped off by anyone.
