Obvious, banks have broken rules: UK court

London, March16 

The British judge hearing the extradition case of liquor baron Vijay Mallya today said that it was “blindingly obvious” that rules were being broken by Indian banks which sanctioned some of the loans to the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines.  

Presiding over a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, Judge Emma Arbuthnot directed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian government, to provide a breakdown of where some of the emails and documentary evidence presented in the case came from.

The hearing today marked the effective end of oral arguments in the case, which will now return to the court on April 27 to consider the additional material sought by the judge and for closing submissions by Mallya’s defence team.

“There are clear signs that the banks seem to have gone against their own guidelines [in sanctioning some of the loans],” the judge said, “inviting” the Indian authorities to explain the case against some of the bank officials involved because that relates to the “conspiracy” point against Mallya.

Mallya, who is on trial for the UK court to rule if he can be extradited to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crores, watched the proceedings from the dock. Pointing out that Mallya had “chosen not to give evidence”, CPS counsel rejected the defence claims on the evidence as “nonsense”. — PTI