Vijay Mallya finally arrested in London on India's extradition request, gets bail within 3 hours

Absconding liquor baron Vijay Mallya was arrested in London and is likely to be extradited to India soon.

New Delhi: Absconding liquor baron Vijay Mallya was arrested in London on Tuesday and is likely to be extradited to India soon.

British authorities have informed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about the arrest. Mallya was arrested at 9.30 am --London time.

The 61-year-old liquor baron, wanted in India for defaulting on loans, appeared before the Westminster's Magistrates' Court in London for his bail hearing and was released within three hours.

India had applied to Britain to extradite Vijay Mallya to face trial after the liquor and aviation tycoon was charged with conspiracy and fraud over a loan to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had last month informed that extradition of absconding liquor baron Vijay Mallya was stratified by Secretary of State of the UK Government and soon a warrant would be released against him.

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".

Earlier in March, the Supreme Court had fast-tracked the proceedings against Mallya and reserved its order on contempt proceedings against him for allegedly diverting $40 million to his children's accounts in foreign banks in violation of court orders.

The apex court had started proceedings against Mallya a year ago and had issued notice to him on March 8, 2016 on a plea by a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) for recovery of about Rs. 9,000 crore which the businessman and his companies owed to them.

The liquor baron, however, fled the country days before the apex court took up the case against him.

Earlier in January this year, a CBI court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Mallya in the Rs 720-crore IDBI Bank loan default case.