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Debt-laden Indian tycoon denies he absconded

"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," Vijay Mallya said on Twitter

Indebted Indian entrepreneur Vijay Mallya denied Friday that he had absconded, after he left the country owing more than $1 billion in unpaid loans to a group of mostly state-run banks.

The head of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, who is thought to be in Britain, tweeted that he would comply with the law and criticised the media for what he called a "witch hunt".

"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 posted on Twitter.

"Once a media witch hunt starts it escalates into a raging fire where truth and facts are burnt to ashes."

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His departure is an embarrassment for the government, which had to admit in court this week that he had left the country even as it sought permission to impound his passport.

Opposition politicians have demanded to know why the 60-year-old was not arrested before he left the country on March 2.

Mallya, who has not been charged with any crime, stepped down last month as chairman of United Spirits, the Indian arm of Britain's Diageo, following allegations of financial lapses.

An Indian tribunal blocked his $75 million severance payout at the request of the banks that are owed money from Kingfisher, but Diageo said this week it had already paid $40 million of the payout.

Mallya was known as the "King of Good Times" before the 2012 collapse of his Kingfisher Airlines, which left thousands of workers unemployed and millions of dollars in unpaid bills.

As his liquor business flourished during the early 2000s he diversified into other areas and in 2005 launched Kingfisher Airlines, named after his company's best-known beer.

But he was unable to stop Kingfisher from haemorrhaging cash, and following a pilots' strike over unpaid wages the airline was grounded in 2012 having never made a profit.

The row comes as India's state-run banks face growing pressure to step up recovery of a mountain of bad loans.