NEW DELHI: Liquor baron Vijay Mallya never attended any meetings as a member of a Parliamentary panel on Commerce, its chairman and Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra disclosed on Friday and said he would welcome any stand taken by the Ethics Committee of the Upper House against him.
“Even I was unaware about him being a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce until someone brought this to my notice. He never attended any meeting during the last two years, ever since I have headed it,” Mitra told Express.
Asked if Mallya would be removed from the committee, he said the Ethics Committee would have to act first. The term of the present composition of the committee is also coming to an end during Monsoon Session. The 30-member committee comprises MPs such as J D Seelam, Vayalar Ravi and Shantaram Naik of Congress, C P Thakur of BJP and T S Lakshmi of TDP. The committee has four meetings lined up this month alone.
Members of the Rajya Sabha on Thursday had demanded that the Ethics Committee look into the issue, after Mallya, who owes over `9,000 crore to a consortium of banks, left the country on March 2.
Mallya, on the other hand, on Friday maintained that he had not fled the country but was travelling abroad as an international businessman.
“I am an international businessman. I travel to and from India frequently. I did not flee from India and neither am I an absconder. Rubbish,” Mallya, who is believed to be in the United Kingdom, tweeted.