Vijay Mallya attacks CBI, questions 'what elite cops know about economics'

NEW DELHI: Beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya dismissed the charges of financial irregularities brought in against him by the Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI) as "false and misconceived" in a series of tweets today. "(I) am shocked at the CBI allegations. All false and misconceived to say the least. What do a bunch of elite police know about business and economics?" Mallya wrote on Twitter. Earlier in the day, Mallya claimed the CBI was manipulating evidence to present him in a bad light and the media was happily capitalizing on it. "The CBI (is) selectively releasing emails to media which are being taken out of context and distorted to make allegations against me and the UPA regime," he tweeted. Mallya was referring to a cache of emails which allege a link between the liquor baron and the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. The current NDA administration claims that Mallya's King Fisher Airlines was given a bail-out package despite its poor ratings on the insistence of influential Congress leaders. Blaming the press for blowing things out of proportion, Mallya, who owns several sports franchises, resorted to a football metaphor to describe his plight. "Media is happily being used as the pitch. I am the football. Two fiercely competitive teams NDA versus UPA playing. Unfortunately, no referees," his tweet read. A special CBI court on Tuesday issued a non-bailable warrant against Mallya in the IDBI Bank loan default case as the CBI sought his extradition from the UK.