Congress asks why Vijay Mallya was not arrested before he fled to London

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley responded by accusing the main opposition party of making a weak case against the beleaguered business tycoon under the Foreign Exchange Maintenance Act or FEMA.

    As the Congress asked the government why Vijay Mallya was not arrested before he fled India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley responded by accusing the main opposition party of making a weak case against the beleaguered business tycoon under the Foreign Exchange Maintenance Act or FEMA.

Here are the ten big developments so far:

1. The Rajya Sabha today debated Mallya's escape to London with the opposition asking the government why it could not prevent him from leaving India.

2. "Vijay Mallya is not a needle that he couldn't be caught. He can be seen from one km away. I ask this government: Why was Mallya not arrested? Why was his passport not seized?" Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said.

3. The government responded by saying the Congress prepared a weak case against Mallya when it was in power. "When Vijay Mallya went abroad, the Congress was in power and a case was registered under FEMA," Jaitley said, adding that the CBI is looking into Mallya's escape.

4. When Azad asked how Mallya was given loans worth Rs 9000 crore by state-run banks, Jaitley countered by claiming that the liquor baron was given banking facility for the first time in 2004 "even when his account was not in order".

5. The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to Mallya on a plea by a consortium of 13 banks led by the SBI seeking his personal appearance before it along with his passport as it was told that he has already left the country.

6. Mallya left soon after the consortium moved applications on March 2 before the Bengaluru-based Debt Recovery Tribunal to restrain British liquor major Diageo from paying him $75 million.

7. Urging the court to ask Mallya to "appear before the court and bring his passport", Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that the businessman is now posting messages like "I am not an absconder. I will come and clear the dues" on his social media account.

8 Telling the court that the banks were only interested in the recovery of loans given to Mallya's now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, Rohatgi said: "We are not after everybody. We are not after his blood."

9. Mallya's now defunct Kingfisher Airline owes the consortium a whopping Rs 9,000 crore, including compound interest over the remaining combined loans of Rs 7,800 crore borrowed between 2004-12 before it was grounded and shut down subsequently.

10. The apex court notice was served to Mallya on his official Rajya Sabha email ID. The court directed the next hearing of the matter on March 30.