Mallya 16th fugitive India wants UK to extradite

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya will become the 16th Indian national New Delhi sought to extradite from the United Kingdom.

The ‘King of Good Times’, however, has no reason to worry, at least not immediately. None of the 15, who precede him in the roll of the fugitives New Delhi wants to get extradited from the UK, have been returned to India.

London had turned down New Delhi’s request for deporting Mallya who is under the Enforcement Directorate scanner in a money laundering case. The government has been forced to take the extradition route. India and the UK have an extradition treaty that dates back to 1993. But the treaty apparently did not help India get its fugitives.

Official documents available with DH revealed that New Delhi could not get anyone extradited from the UK in the past 13 years.

Between February 2002 and December 2015, at least 60 terrorists and other fugitives were extradited to India from the United Arab Emirates, United States, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Germany, Canada, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Oman, Peru, Mauritius, Morocco, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Bulgaria, South Africa, Australia, Tanzania and Portugal. None was extradited from the UK.

Three British citizens were extradited to India in 2004 and 2005, albeit from US, Tanzania and Bulgaria.

Officials said that New Delhi could not get anyone extradited from the UK particularly because the legal system of that country provides the fugitives safeguards that they could resort to resist or, at least, delay their return to India.

New Delhi repeatedly conveyed its concerns to London over excessive delay in extraditing fugitives from the UK to India.