NEW DELHI, Mar 10 (Agencies) : Liquor baron Vijay Mallya's possible departure to the UK in the middle of a fight to recover hundreds of crores in unpaid loans caused clashes in Parliament today.
"This government is part and party in the criminal conspiracy in him fleeing the country," charged Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
The government yesterday told the Supreme Court that Vijay Mallya went abroad on March 2. The court was hearing the petition of 17 banks which had said that Mallya should be stopped from leaving India.
The court has asked for a notice to be served to Mallya's Rajya Sabha email ID through the Indian High Commission at London.
Azad said: "Our Attorney General tells the Supreme Court that we had issued lookout notice but he ran away from the country. When so many agencies were interrogating him, why wasn't he arrested, why wasn't his passport taken away?"
The Congress leader added: "He is a tall and well-endowed man and travels with a whole cavalcade. How can he disappear?"
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley retorted that the Congress, which was in power for 10 years till 2014, never took any steps to recover the loans.
"The banks are taking all steps to recover every paisa taken from them," Jaitley said. He questioned how cricket tycoon Lalit Modi left India despite being wanted in corruption cases.
"You could not stop him or arrest him. I can share the details. This will require a lot of introspection on your end," said Jaitley.