Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju today thanked the UK government for its cooperation in the ongoing extradition case of liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya.
The minister, who is on a tour of Britain this week, held talks with the country's minister of state for security at the UK Home Office, Ben Wallace, on broad security issues.
"As part of the discussions, the minister thanked the UK government for all its cooperation in the Vijay Mallya extradition case," a senior official present at the meeting said.
Mallya is set to return to Westminster Magistrates' Court in London today for one the final hearings in the case.
The 62-year-old is wanted in India to stand trial on charges of fraud and money laundering allegedly amounting to around Rs 9,000 crores.
Judge Emma Arbuthnot is set to rule on the "admissibility" of some of the evidence presented by the Indian government in the case and is also expected to set a timetable for her verdict on whether the UK-based businessman can be extradited to India to face the allegations involving his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Besides the extradition case, issues such as the rise of fundamentalism and Sikh extremism were discussed during Rijiju's meeting with the UK minister.
"The minister invited Wallace to visit India to continue discussions on security issues," the official said.
The UK government has reportedly expressed an interest in learning from India's experiences on Islamist terrorism as a country with one of the largest Muslim populations in the world but the smallest number of radicalised elements in the Islamic State (ISIS).
