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Monday, 8 April 2019

UK court rejects Mallya plea against extradition

Vijay Mallya
Vijay Mallya (file photo)

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Vijay Mallya is wanted for defrauding Indian banks to the tune of Rs 9000 crore
  • A special PMLA court recently branded Mallya as first fugitive economic offender
  • Mallya is said to be left with just one legal option in UK
A UK High Court on Monday rejected a plea filed by Vijay Mallya against his extradition order. The Westminster Magistrates' Court had already ordered the extradition of Mallya which was accepted by the UK Home Office. In February, Mallya appealed against the order of Westminster Magistrates Court but his plea against the order was rejected by the High Court.
Sources said that Mallya, who is wanted by the Indian investigative agencies for defrauding banks to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore, has one legal option left. Sources say, he can still appeal before the court of UK against the extradition order.
According to UK Home Office Spokesperson, "Mr Mallya's application for leave to appeal against extradition has been refused by the High Court. Mr Mallya may now renew his application to the Court."
Mallya's application was rejected by the High Court on April 5. Mallya can file his new application within 5 working days for oral consideration. Top government sources told India Today TV that based on the strong evidence presented by the Indian agencies, Mallya's appeal was rejected by the court.
This development is seen as a major success by the Indian agencies as they have moved one step closer to getting Mallya in India. On January 2, Vijay Mallya was declared as the country's first fugitive economic offender under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.
A special PMLA court in Mumbai branded Mallya as the first fugitive economic offender following an appeal filed by the Enforcement Directorate, which is one of the investigative agencies probing Mallya. The order is likely to offer a major boost to the Narendra Modi-led government just days ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
Recently, the Indian government successfully deported Deepak Talwar, Rajeev Saxena and extradited Christian Michel in connection with the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. A case was registered against Mallya on July 29, 2015, including Kingfisher Airlines Limited (KAL), A Raghunathan, chief financial officer of KAL and unidentified officials of IDBI. During the investigation, the agency found that Mallya's KAL had fraudulently utilised significant portions of loan funds to service the existing debt, diverted the loan funds to such purposes other than that avowed.

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