Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who left India in connection with his defaulting of Rs 9,000 crore worth of loans to banks in the country, has now lodged a petition with the cyber unit of Mumbai Police against Sunday Guardian.
Mallya decided to pick on the daily after it published an interview which is claimed to be based on an email interaction with him. However, he claimed that he never gave an interview to the Sunday Guardian.
“I have not given any email or any other interview to anyone including the Sunday Guardian. The email account that has been attributed to me does not belong to me. Every comment, therefore, is fabricated. I have filed a complaint with the cyber police station in Mumbai,” said a statement by Mallya’s spokesperson.
Earlier in twitter also the liquor baron had rejected the claims that he had given an interview to the publication.
“Shocked to see Sunday Guardian’s claim that I exchanged mails with them from my protonmail account. Have never heard of protonmail before (Sic),” Mallya said in twitter.
“Sunday Guardian’s claim that I wrote to them from my so called protonmail account to the reporters protonmail account is a total fake,” he added.
However, M D Nalapat, editorial director of the Sunday Guardian maintained that the daily stands by its interview.
“There is no ambiguity on the genuineness of the interview. It is hundred percent genuine,” said Nalapat. “
Nalapat suggested that he could be shying away from acknowledging it because of the pressure that is mounting on him.
However Nalapat has issued a directive to hold an an internal investigation to account for the veracity of the email and the interview that was based on it.
“The editor of the paper has also publicly admitted on Twitter that he would investigate the matter as this tantamounts to fraud and needs to be seriously investigated. In all fairness, all TV channels and newspapers who have quoted from the interview should publish a retraction,” said Mallya’s statement.
The article published by Sunday Guardian interview quoted Mallya saying that he is not an absconder and he is ‘unsure’ of when he will come back to India.
In order to vindicate itself from accusations of fraud, the newspaper had uploaded the email-trail with Mallya on its website.
