A joint team comprising of officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) led by CBI Joint Director A Sai Manohar has left for the UK for court proceedings there, on India’s request seeking extradition of Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, reports ANI. The Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London had earlier set December 10 as the date of hearing in Vijay Mallya’s extradition case.
The UK court is expected to pronounce its judgment on Monday.
The Indian government has been trying hard to extradite Vijay Mallya after he ran away to the UK on March 2, 2016. Mallya faces charges of defaulting on loans to the tune of Rs 9000 crores. The extradition trial which began at the London court on December 4 last year, is aimed at proving fraud case against Mallya and convincing the court that he will be subject to a fair trial in the country.
The ED and CBI, resolute to get back fugitive Vijay Mallya back to India, are prepared to take any steps required to achieve the extradition. It was reported earlier, how in an attempt to leave no stone unturned, the Indian government had spruced up the Arthur jail where Mallya is expected to be lodged after he is brought back to India, to assure the UK court about the conditions of the jail.
Lately, for Vijay Mallya, things have not gone his way. Last month he faced a major setback in a legal battle to save his London home from foreclosure.
A few days ago, a London Court had ordered the confiscation of the six highly expensive cars of Mallya to repay Indian Consortium of Banks Rs 10,000 crore.
In separate legal proceedings, the businessman had also lost his appeal in the UK’s Court of Appeal against a High Court order in favour of 13 Indian banks to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds.
The high court order, earlier this year, in favour of the State Bank of India led consortium had reinforced a worldwide freezing order against Mallya’s assets.
Vijay Mallya, sensing that all doors for escape are slowly shutting on him, recently, had in a series of tweet brought to fore a settlement offer for repayment of the principal amount he owes to various Public Sector Banks in India. This came hours after the extradition of the wanted fugitive and middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal, Christian Michel from UAE to India.
In June, Mallya had made similar claims by releasing a letter he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
There have been reports that Mallya is reiterating the settlement offer and claiming innocence as his extradition verdict is soon to be announced. It so seems that deep down somewhere Mallya probably realises that his ‘good times’ are soon to reach its end.
