KOLKATA: On Monday, former Indian businessman, Vijay Mallya lost an appeal at an UK High Court, to block his extradition to India. This ruling helps pass a major hurdle towards making the embattled tycoon face alleged fraud and money-laundering charges, in his home country.
India wants to bring back Mallya, 64, whose business interests have ranged from aviation to liquor, as he willfully defaulted on loans, amounting to ₹9100 Crore, from 17 Indian banks. These misrepresentations directly lead to the 2012 collapse of his company, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and his April 2017 arrest, in London. Mallya has been in UK since March 2016. He remains there on bail, on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard in April 2017.
Mallya, the co-owner of the Formula One motor racing team Force India which went into administration in 2018, was nicknamed “the King of Good Times” after the slogan of one of his premium beers and his hard-partying lifestyle. But, he refuses to fully pay back despite having the means to do so.
Now the appeal judges, Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing, the two-member bench at the Royal Courts of Justice, in London, presiding over the appeal, dismissed Mallya’s argument. In summary, they said that her findings meant that a jury would agree that Mallya had a case to answer. Multiple grounds like his safety at Barrack 12 in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail where he is to be held on extradition, were challenged by Mallya’s lawyers, in their case against India.
“We consider that while the scope of the prima facie case found by the SDJ [Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot] is, in some respects, wider than that alleged by the Respondent in India (CBI and ED), there is a prima facie case which, in seven important respects, coincides with the allegations in India,”said the judges, in their ruling.
Mallya’s lawyers didn’t immediately return calls and messages which wanted to ask for comments. This dismissal of the High Court appeal effectively leaves him with 14 days to apply for permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court. “If he doesn’t appeal – removal (will occur) within 28 days thereafter. If he does appeal, we wait for the outcome on that application,” said a spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which has represented the Indian authorities in the UK courts.
This marks a major turning point for the current Indian Administration, especially Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has faced pressure from political opponents on the issue of extraditing these former businessmen, to face fraud charges.
Representatives from the Enforcement Directoriate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had been present in court in February during the three-day hearing, at the end of which Mallya had once again reiterated his offer. “I am saying, please banks take your money. The ED is saying no, we have a claim over these assets. So, the ED on the one side and the banks on the other are fighting over the same assets… What all they are doing to me for the last four years is totally unreasonable,” stated Mallya.
The former Indian business tycoon is also fighting a number of civil cases in the U.K. after defaulting on the loans. He faces a bankruptcy petition from 12 state-owned Indian banks for over $1.5 billion in debt, as well as a number of freezing orders on several of his assets, including his properties, yachts, cars and paintings.