The government on Thursday attacked Congress and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for helping Vijay Mallya and beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines to keep it afloat.

"Since 2010 UPA has violated all norms for Vijay Mallya & Kingfisher Airlines. This shows the propensity to which the Congress can lie to cover-up their sins," union railway minister Piyush Goyal told a press conference in New Delhi.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that in 2010, then UPA government has given special relaxation for restructuring Kingfisher Airlines.

Goyal said, "Congress' saga of lies are exposed. Congress should tell one favour that NDA government offered to Vijay Mallya. Congress should clarify what relations they had with Kingfisher airlines."

According to Goyal, Narendra Modi government is cleaning the sins of the past governments and Mallya's statement is a conspiracy of the Congress party and then prime minister.

Talking on fugitive absconders, Goyal said, "We dealt strictly with all loan defaulters. Now they have a pressure to repay the loans. We cannot trust a loan defaulter on what he is saying."

The BJP leader was responding to Congress president Rahul Gandhi's demand for a probe into Mallya's claim that he had met finance minister Arun Jaitley before leaving India.

Mallya, facing charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore and fighting an extradition case, told reporters in London that he met finance minister Arun Jaitley and offered to settle with the banks.

"I left India because I had a scheduled meeting in Geneva. Before leaving I met the finance minister and offered to settle (the issue with the banks)," Mallya said, without naming the minister.

Jaitley rubbished Mallya's statement, saying he never gave him an appointment since 2014 but the liquor baron misused his position as Rajya Sabha MP to accost him in Parliament.

(With inputs from PTI)

Have you signed up for Primo, our daily newsletter?

It has all the stories and data on the market, business, economy and tech that you need to know.

First Published:Sept 13, 2018 5:53 PM IST