Will request SC to ensure Vijay Mallya's presence, if needed: AG

New Delhi: Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi Monday said he will request the Supreme Court to ask liquor baron Vijay Mallya to appear before it, if required.

"The Supreme Court has not yet asked Mallya to appear in person but we will request the apex court to ask him to be present in person...

"If he (Mallya) is not coming back and we are unable to proceed with the matter further, we can then initiate the proceedings like revoking the passport and all. If revocation doesn't work, we can initiate extradition process with the UK," Rohatgi said about the Mallya's case while talking to a private TV channel.

The Attorney General said power to arrest does not mean that every offender has to be arrested and it was only a mechanism to ensure that investigation does not get hampered.

"It is not imperative that the person must be arrested or detained in every criminal case. That is not the law. Merely because you have the power to arrest, it does not mean that you can arrest everyone. Arrest is only to see that their investigation is not affected...

"Banks are not government of India. They are only public sector enterprises who are interested in getting their money back. They have been running from pillar to post for last two to three years, hundreds of hearing have been held in various Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRT), over a dozen times they have gone to the High Court up and down and many adjournments," Rohatgi said.

On the issue of delay by banks in approaching the apex court, he said the banks approached the court after a long process of petitioning DRTs and High Court and again DRTs and the whole process took nearly seven days.

The AG was talking about the plea of 13 banks, led by SBI, which had moved the Supreme court for restraining Mallya, who owes them over Rs 9,000 crore, from leaving the country.

Mallya, who was said to be in London, had given an interview to a newspaper in which he was quoted as saying that he doesn't feel that it's the right time to come back to India.

Mallya, however, today said in a tweet, "I have not given any statement to anyone."