Mallya to be extradited, London court rules : The Tribune India

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Mallya to be extradited, London court rules

LONDON: A UK court today ordered Vijay Mallya’s extradition and said there were substantial “misrepresentations” in the billionaire’s characterisations of his financial dealings, in a major boost to India’s efforts to bring back the fugitive wanted for alleged bank fraud amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crore.



London, December 10

A UK court today ordered Vijay Mallya’s extradition and said there were substantial “misrepresentations” in the billionaire’s characterisations of his financial dealings, in a major boost to India’s efforts to bring back the fugitive wanted for alleged bank fraud amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crore.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court Chief Magistrate Judge Emma Arbuthnot said there was a prima facie case against Mallya and his human rights would not be infringed if he was extradited to India.

READ: Mallya extradition: Arthur Road Jail keeps high security cell ready

(Read the complete court order here) 

She said 62-year-old Mallya misrepresented the state of the company and was not above using “round robin” methods to use the funds acquired for purposes other than specified to the banks.

She said loans were obtained based on false documents and banks had been fooled by ostensibly billionaire’s flamboyant personality.

The judge also said there was “no sign of a false case being mounted against him”. She referred the extradition case to Home Secretary of State Sajid Javid, who must also approve it.

The former Kingfisher Airlines boss has been on bail since his arrest in April last year. Mallya remains on the same bail conditions as before while the extradition order is signed off or not by the Home Secretary. He, meanwhile, has time to appeal the decision in the UK High Court.

In case Mallya’s team does not file an appeal, and the Secretary of State agrees with the magistrate’s decision, then he must be extradited from the UK within 28 days of the Home Secretary’s extradition order.

In Delhi, a CBI spokesperson welcomed the verdict.

Judge Arbuthnot said she accepted the Indian government’s contention that since Mallya had such a high profile, his trial will be under great scrutiny. “I find that Mallya will be able to raise with the court any overly prejudicial publicity,” the judge said. 

She said any suggestion that CBI courts are too pliable when it comes to CBI cases is not borne out by reliable evidence. “I do not accept that the courts in India are there to do what the politicians tell them to do. As I have already said, the court will be under great scrutiny. I do not find any international consensus which would enable me to find that the judges in India are corrupt.” — PTI

‘Banks in his thrall’

Banks themselves had made a number of failings but there was little evidence officials had been involved in planning to defraud their own bank. They might have been in the thrall of this glamorous, flashy, famous, bejewelled, bodyguarded, ostensibly billionaire playboy who charmed and cajoled them into ignoring their own rules, regulations. Emma Arbuthnot, Westminster Magistrates’ Court Chief Magistrate

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