TOI correspondent from London: Fugitive liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya has told a podcast, in a rare interview, that he told the late former finance minister Arun Jaitley that he was about to fly out of India to London before he left for the airport in March 2016.At the time there was supposed to be a CBI lookout circular (LOC) issued against him.Mallya told “Figuring Out with Raj Shamani” he was not aware of any LOC against him, nor that it had been downgraded by the CBI from detaining him to informing immigration of authorities of his travel plans.He told Shamani that certain TV anchors and the Indian govt want to see him in “jail clothes, eating jail food” in Tihar and spending the rest of his life behind bars. “If that is what is inevitable, what options do I have? It might be inevitable, I’m not an astrologer. I will fight my way in court.”He said: “I told FM Arun Jaitley before leaving for the airport and then I flew from Delhi to London on the way to Geneva for a meeting which was fixed months ago. I told the then finance minister because I went from Parliament to Delhi airport. When this news hit the media, once again, it created a storm. People went running to Mr Jaitley. He denied meeting me. A Congress MP saw us and then said to the media ‘No, I saw them together’. Mr Jaitley had to retract his statement and say ‘Yes, yes I met him but only while walking — it was a fleeting meeting’.”“I never said I went to Mr Jaitley’s office, sat in front of him, had tea with him. All I said is I told the finance minister while leaving, I’m going to London and going to Geneva for a meeting, please tell the banks to sit across the table and settle with me. How long does this once sentencetake? You see the way he denied it, and then when a Congress MP pointed out his mistake that he saw us, he quickly changed.”He also said he had always planned to go back to India but his Indian passport was revoked.In the four-hour podcast Mallya also said he would be prepared to return to India. “If I have the assurance of a fair trial and assurance of dignified existence in India, I will think about returning to India seriously. “ He then reminded Shamani of the judgment in the Sanjay Bhandari case which found “Indian detention conditions a violation of Article 3 of the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights)”, which may mean he could not be extradited now.When asked why he had not gone already as he had lost his extradition battle in the courts, the 69-year-old said: “My stay in England is fully legitimate. There is more than the particular case you are referring to. There are ongoing proceedings in this country. It’s one of the legal battles I am fighting,” he said. This suggests he may have applied for asylum.
