On Friday, beleaguered business tycoon Vijay Mallya's Twitter account was hacked by a group which identified itself as 'Legion'. This is the same group which also hacked into Congress vice-President Rahul Gandhi's and the party's account earlier this month

On Friday, troubled business tycoon Vijay Mallya's Twitter account was hacked by a group which identified itself as 'Legion'. This is the same group that also hacked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and the party's accounts earlier this month.

In a couple of tweets, the group confirmed this fact:

@OfficeOfRG

You have not been forgotten.

New year, if you catch all of us by then, you might be able to save your party. — Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) December 9, 2016

@rahulroushan

When we finish sifting through them.

Congress was sniffed for about 4 months carefully.

Expect it on new year. — Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) December 9, 2016

Mallya appeared to laugh off the move as he tweeted:

My account has been hacked by some one called Legion who are Tweeting now in my name. Simply ignore. Will fix this . — Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) December 8, 2016

Outfit called Legion has hacked my e-mail accounts and are blackmailing me !! What a joke. — Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) December 8, 2016

The hackers then posted a series of tweets claiming details of Mallya's assets at several banks and passwords of accounts:

Hello

We are back with -

Vijay mallya's assets at several banks

All known passwords of Mr. Mallya. pic.twitter.com/GcYhI6iLUU — Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) December 9, 2016

The group also uploaded a file dump containing an assortment of documents — including a scanned image of his passport and transcripts of conversations — and provided the link in one of the tweets:

The bank accounts, assets, passports, offshore investments of mallya can be found at -https://t.co/4PClILJG4n — Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) December 9, 2016

Calling for public support, 'Legion' claimed that it will bring more information of criminals out in public in order to bring them to justice. Calling Mallya a "fraudster" and a "conman", the hacker also claimed that more information on Mallya's bank accounts and foreign assets will be published as the investigation is completed in some other matters.

It is not clear how the hackers gained control of Mallya's accounts, but the flow of tweets from his account shows no sign of abating. Here's a sample of the latest tweets:

Who gave mallya an indefinite residency permit at the UK? pic.twitter.com/hJzUb2qjtC — Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) December 9, 2016

Classic cars AT HIS MANSION AT LADYWALK!

A partial list of them! Not all! pic.twitter.com/f0gnlWaljh — Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) December 9, 2016

Some more random investments of mallya pic.twitter.com/oZcJlBiYsI — Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) December 9, 2016

The group did however point out repeatedly that the motive behind putting Mallya's dirty laundry on public display was not blackmail.

We did not blackmail Mallya, any and all rumours are assumptions and fake!

He is creating propaganda. — Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) December 9, 2016

Mallya owes close to Rs 9,000 crore to lenders like SBI, PNB, IDBI bank, BoB, Allahabad Bank, Federal Bank, Axis Bank etc. He currently lives in Britain.

Update: At around 12.30 pm on Friday, the tweets were deleted from Mallya's Twitter handle. See the screenshots below:











