Embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, accused of absconding to the U.K. while owing over $1 billion to a group of Indian banks, resigned from his position as a member of the India’s parliament on Monday. According to the Indian Express, Mallya said in a letter to Vice President Hamid Ansari — who is also the chairman of the parliament’s upper house — that he was stepping down to avoid his name being “further dragged in the mud.” He also expressed the view that he would not “get a fair trial or justice.” Mallya’s resignation pre-empts his seemingly imminent expulsion from parliament by an ethics committee, which said last week it planned to remove him on Tuesday.