JOIN USMallya held in London, gets bail within hours
Flamboyant businessman Vijay Mallya, pursued by the authorities over unpaid loans tied to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, was arrested by the Scotland Yard in London on Tuesday.
He was freed on a bail bond worth 6,50,000 pounds on strict conditions and will next appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 17.
Mallya must follow extradition rules, which include a requirement that he remain at the address provided to the court. The government had revoked Mallya’s Indian passport last year. He must surrender that revoked travel document and is also forbidden from possessing any international travel documents, according to well-placed sources in the UK.
Mallya has also been directed by the court that he remain in contact with UK authorities, with his mobile phone accessible at all times.
“Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Extradition Unit this (Tuesday) morning arrested a man on an extradition warrant. Vijay Mallya was arrested on behalf of the Indian authorities in relation to accusations of fraud,” the Scotland Yard said.
A source close to Mallya said he attended a police station voluntarily and the arrest was a technical procedure. Mallya, in a message on Twitter, called the news of his arrest “usual Indian media hype”.
Senior Indian officials described his arrest as the first salvo in the case. The arrest comes weeks after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had indicated that Mallya’s extradition would feature in his talks during his visit to the UK.
On February 8, India asked Britain to extradite Mallya to face trial after the liquor and aviation tycoon fled to UK last March after banks sued to recover about Rs 9,000 crore that Kingfisher owes.
But Mallya has repeatedly dismissed all charges, saying, “Not one rupee was misused”.
Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said, “We are now assessing the facts on how we can bring him back into the country and start judicial proceedings against him.”
India and Britain have a mixed record on extradition, say legal experts. Some cases have collapsed when evidence fell short of the standard of “dual criminality”, or actions that amount to a crime in both countries.
“Legitimate” case
While handing over the request, India had asserted that it has a “legitimate” case against Mallya and maintained that if an extradition request is honoured, it would show British “sensitivity towards our concerns”.
The UK Home Office declined to comment on “individual cases” but said that Mallya’s case will be handled under Part 2 of the UK’s Extradition Act 2003.
In January, an Indian court ordered a consortium of lenders to start the process of recovering the loans, and a Central Bureau Investigation court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Mallya in the Rs 720-crore IDBI Bank loan default case.
Mallya also co-owns the Force India Formula One team. He has a base in London and a country home bought from the father of triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton.