DNA Edit: Prison Calling - Vijay Mallya’s extradition is significant in an election season

The UK court judgment has made it amply clear that Vijay Mallya’s days as a free man are numbered. India will now accelerate the momentum — in close coordination with UK’s Secretary of State — for “expeditious” implementation of the court order.

Mallya’s defeat also sends an unambiguous message to other economic offenders, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Lalit Modi seeking refuge in foreign countries. “Wherever in the world you hide after cheating the country, India will find you,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said after the court ruling. Immunity from Indian laws won’t be easy. Mallya had played the ultimate card — human rights violations to wriggle out of extradition.

The court dismissed Mallya’s attempts to portray a sorry state of Indian prisons. It found the newly refurbished Barrack 12 of Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail, where he would be lodged, good enough for an offender who had misappropriated around Rs 9,000 crore of Indian taxpayers’ money.

Placing all his assets on the table when his legal options are shrinking is too little too late. If Mallya returns to India it will be a big feather in the cap for the BJP in the election season. However, his lawyers will leave no stone unturned to resist extradition.

Mallya now has 14 days to appeal, during which time he wouldn’t be arrested. Should he choose to move the Court of Appeal, it could take months for the case to be heard as the higher courts are clogged up with cases.

Even then, Mallya’s case is a landmark. India has had a poor track record in the 26 years of the extradition treaty with UK being in force. The UK had acceded to only one request about Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, wanted in Gujarat riots cases. But, given the warmth in bilateral ties, that scenario is changing.