NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said investigative agencies are doing their best to ensure extradition of controversial businessman Vijay Mallya, who was arrested in London yesterday and later released on bail.
“I think the government and all the investigating agencies are certainly putting (in) their best efforts because the agencies do believe that an offence has been committed for which the person (Mallya) is required in India,” the minister told reporters here.
The minister further said Mallya’s extradition is part of the “judicial process” in the UK. “It’s part of the judicial process in that country and the judicial process functions on certain considerations,” he said in response to queries regarding Mallya’s extradition. Mallya, who has been declared a proclaimed offender by Indian courts, was arrested in London by the Scotland Yard yesterday on India’s request for his extradition on fraud charges. He was, however, released on bail a few hours later on a bail bond worth 6,50,000 pound. He is required to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 17. The 61-year-old liquor baron has to face charges in Indian courts in connection with loan default cases. Mallya, whose now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, had left India on March 2, 2016. The Indian government has since revoked his Indian passport, but he has repeatedly dismissed all charges against him. In January, an Indian court ordered a consortium of lenders to start the process of recovering the loans. India had placed a formal extradition request for Mallya as per the Extradition Treaty between India and the UK through a note verbale on February 8. 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. He is the owner of a Formula One team. 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”.–PTI
