Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya tweets he's ready to talk to banks for 'one-time settlement'

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya -- Indian fugitive in the UK wanted for wilful tax evasion and loan defaults -- took to Twitter on Friday, saying he was ready to negotiate with banks to pay a "one-time settlement" charge on his Rs 9,000 crore loan default. "Public sector banks have policies for one-time settlements. Hundreds of borrowers have settled. Why should this be denied to us? Our substantial offer before the honourable Supreme Court was rejected by banks without consideration. (I) am ready to talk settlement on fair basis," Mallya said in a tweet. "Wish the Supreme Court would intervene and put an end to all this by directing banks and us to negotiate and settle. We are ready," he said in another tweet. Mallya added that he had "humbly obeyed every single court order without exception" and accused the government of being "bent on holding me guilty without fair trial." "The allegations against me by the Attorney General before the Supreme Court only prove the attitude of the government against me," he tweeted. Mallya tweets came on the back of questions posed by the Supreme Court to him on Thursday. The court has enquired from Mallya about the "truthfulness" of his disclosure of assets and the transfer of $40 million to his children. A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and UU Lalit had put forth the queries during a day-long hearing, following which it reserved the orders on two pleas from lenders seeking contempt action against Mallya and a direction to him to deposit $40 million received from offshore firm Diageo. Last month, the Indian government handed over to the UK an extradition request for the businessman, who is facing cases of loan default tax evasion and other financial irregularities. Mallya, whose now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, had left India on March 2 and is currently staying in the UK.