'Banks Will Recover Every Penny From Vijay Mallya,' Says Finance Minister Jaitley

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has declined a specific comment on whether his government considered industrialist Vijay Mallya an absconder, but sought to assure that "every penny that is due from him to state-run banks will be recovered."

Answering a specific question at the India Today conclave on Vijay Mallya, who is said to owe Rs. 9,000 crore to 17 banks, most of them in the state sector, the finance minister said "every agency in India, be it for enforcement or investigation, was on the job regarding the case."

"The facts are very clear: Every government agency will take strong action against him. Banks will go all out to recover every single penny," Mr Jaitley said about Vijay Mallya who left the country earlier this month amid charges of willful default on bank loans worth thousands of crores.

Even as Mr Jaitley was speaking, a consortium led by the State Bank of India was preparing for the auction of Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher House at Jogeshwari in Mumbai, in a bid to recover a part of the debt due from the now grounded Kingfisher Airlines alone.