Nitin Gadkari says ‘calling Vijay Mallya a fraud is not right, he repaid loans for 40 years’ 

Nitin Gadkari.

Following a UK court order, on Monday, clearing fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya’s extradition to India, finance minister Arun Jaitley tweeted: “Great day for India. No one who cheats India will go scot free … An offender benefited during the UPA. The NDA brings him to book.” However, days after this, Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari, Jaitley’s colleague in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, said it was “not right” to call someone a “fraud” who had repaid loans for 40 years but defaulted once he entered the aviation sector and ran into problems.

Speaking at the Times Network-organized “India Economic Conclave” in Mumbai, Gadkari, on Thursday, said, “I have nothing to do with Vijay Mallya … Mallya’s was a prime account for 40 years when he repaid loans regularly. He entered the aviation sector and ran into problems. So, does that make him a thief? He defaulted once, and he turned to be a fraud? This mindset is not right.”

Gadkari’s remarks on Mallya is expected to raise some eyebrows, if not kick a political row.

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