Vijay Mallya to repay Rs 4,000 crore to banks by September

New Delhi: The business tycoon Vijay Mallya is ready to pay a part of Rs 9,000 crore debt that he owed to banks, his lawyers said the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Mallya offered to pay Rs 2,000 crore upfront and remaining Rs 2,000 crore by September 30, 2016. The court gave a week time to banks to respond on Mallya’s request. “If you want to reject it, do so,” the court told the State Bank of Indian counsel. Mallya’s counsel asked the proposal to be kept a secret as the “media vitiates the atmosphere” but the request was rejected. Vijay Mallya left India on March 2, as he was under probe for alleged loan deafaults by the Central Burean of Investigation and the Enviroment Directorate.

A consortium of 17 banks, led by State Bank of India -- had approached the SC to bar Mallya from leaving India, worried about the fate of their loans worth thousands of crores given to the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines that he headed.