Banks were made to bail out Mallya under UPA rule: BJP

BJP alleged that banks were 'pushed' into giving Rs 3,100 crore loan to him and unfreezing his bank accounts in 2012.

With Congress attacking the government over liquor baron Vijay Mallya leaving the country, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday accused it of "misleading" people and asked it to come clean on the alleged bailout package given to him during UPA rule.

Defending the government saying that legal process had begun for action against Mallya over "wilful" default on loan repayment under the Narendra Modi dispensation, BJP alleged that banks were "pushed" into giving Rs 3,100 crore (Rs 31 billion) loan to him and unfreezing his bank accounts in 2012.

"Congress should not try to mislead the people. It should instead tell people why its government pushed banks into giving a bailout package to Mallya and why they were asked to unfreeze his accounts, which were frozen due to his default," party National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

Referring to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's speech in Rajya Sabha on Thursday, he said 22 cases were filed in different parts of the country and some assets were attached.

Attacking Congress, Sharma said it has had a "nexus with such people" in the past and recalled the escape of Bhopal gas disaster accused Warren Anderson and Bofors case suspect Ottavio Quattrocchi.

"The then law minister had camped abroad for weeks to help Quattrocchi," he alleged, adding that former IPL boss Lalit Modi also indulged in financial irregularities during the UPA rule before escaping to the UK.