Vijay Mallya's appeal against extradition to India dismissed by UK High Court

New Delhi: Facing fraud and money laundering amounting to an alleged Rs 9,000 crore, 64-year-old liquor baron Vijay Mallya's appeal against an extradition order to India was rejected by UK High Court on Monday (April 20). The former Kingfisher Airlines boss had appealed to the High Court at a hearing in February 2020.

According to reports, Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing, the two-member bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London presiding over the appeal, dismissed Mallya's appeal in a judgment handed down remotely due to the current coronavirus lockdown.

The Lord Justices is quoted as saying, "We consider that while the scope of the prima facie case found by the SDJ [Senior District Judge] is in some respects wider than that alleged by the Respondent in India [Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED)], there is a prima facie case which, in seven important respects, coincides with the allegations in India." 

The 64-year-old embattled businessman has recently denied wrongdoing stating that he intends to repay those loans.

On April 10, the High Court in London had deferred hearings on a plea by the SBI-led consortium of Indian banks, seeking the indebted tycoon to be declared bankrupt to enable them to recover a loan from him, according to a PTI report.

Justice Michael Briggs of the insolvency division of the High Court had granted relief to Mallya, ruling that he should be given time till his petitions to the Supreme Court of India and his settlement proposal before the Karnataka High Court be determined, allowing him time to repay his debts to the banks in full.

"This bankruptcy petition is by any measure extraordinary. The banks are pressing for a bankruptcy order at a time when there are extant proceedings in India," read the judgment, adding "In my judgment the banks are secured, at least in part? The hearing of the petition should be adjourned for the purpose of amendment and for time to pay the debts in full." 

A consortium of Indian public sector banks led by the State Bank of India had sought a bankruptcy order against Mallya as part of efforts to recoup around GBP 1.145 billion of unpaid loans from Mallya.

On March 31, Mallya had tweeted, "I have made repeated offers to pay 100 percent of the amount borrowed by KFA to the Banks. Neither are Banks willing to take money and neither is the ED willing to release their attachments which they did at the behest of the Banks. I wish the FM would listen in this time of crisis." 

Mallya is wanted in India under charges of financial fraud worth around Rs 9,000 crore in borrowings by his Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) from several Indian banks. The case followed the collapse of his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Mallya was arrested in April 2017, in London on India's request for extradition. The liquor baron was granted bail but was again arrested in London in October 2017, following an Enforcement Directorate (ED) affidavit.

In December 2018, a UK court had ordered the extradition of Vijay Mallya.