‘Flashy, playboy’ Vijay Mallya fit case for extradition to India: London court

UK court on Monday ordered Vijay Mallya’s extradition, in a major boost to India’s efforts to bring back the fugitive wanted for alleged fraud and money laundering charges involving nearly Rs 9,000 crore. 

Westminster Magistrates’ Court Chief Magistrate Judge Emma Arbuthnot said that there was “no sign of a false case being mounted against him”. “Having considered evidence as a whole. There is a case to answer,” Judge Arbuthnot said as she ruled that the 62-year-old former liquor baron could be extradited to India to stand trial on the charges brought by the CBI and the ED. She was also extremely critical of how loans were granted and then used.

She referred the extradition case to Secretary of State Sajid Javid, who will pass an order based on the verdict. Mallya has 14 days to appeal. 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley welcomed the verdict. “Great Day for India. No one who cheats India will go scot free. The Judgement of UK’s Court is welcome. An offender benefited during the UPA. The NDA brings him to book,” he said in a tweet. 

Arbuthnot said officials might have been in “the thrall of this glamorous, flashy, famous, bejewelled, bodyguarded, ostensibly billionaire playboy who charmed and cajoled” them into ignoring their own rules and regulations. 

She said Mallya, nicknamed “the King of Good Times” after the slogan of one of his premium beers and his hard partying lifestyle, had used the loans, among other things, for “vanity projects” such as Force India which had received payments at a time when it was struggling in 2010. “I have found that on the face of it, [Mallya] was doing everything he could by using honest or dishonest means to keep the company going.” 

According to London-based law firm Zaiwalla & Co LLP said, Mallya would be on bail if he chooses to file an appeal first in the UK High Court. “Should he choose to appeal to the Court of Appeal, it could take up to five or six months take months for the case to be heard. Should this also go against him, he could apply for the right to appeal to the Supreme Court, which would involve at least another six weeks and if he wins the right to do so that could take more months, even up to a year,” said the firm.

On Mallya’s attempts to dispute Indian prison conditions as a bar to his extradition on human rights grounds, judge Arbuthnot said the video of the Barrack 12 of Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail, where Mallya would be held, “gives accurate portrayal and has been recently redecorated”. “He will have access to personal medical care to manage his diabetes and coronary problems... There was no ground at all to believe that he faces any risk at all [in jail],” the judge ruled.

The former Kingfisher Airlines boss has been on bail since his arrest in April last year. The judge ruled that Mallya would remain on same bail conditions. Earlier in the day, Mallya sought to disprove the narrative that he has “stolen” money and said his offer to repay the principal amount to the Indian banks was “not bogus”.

“My settlement offer is made before the Karnataka High Court. It is not related to this extradition trial. Nobody disrespects a court of law by making a bogus offer. The assets have been attached by the ED so they cannot be bogus assets,” he told the media outside the London court.

The embattled businessman said that the value of his assets is more than enough to pay everybody and that is exactly what he was focusing on. He said his legal team will review the judgment and proceed accordingly.

In reference to settlement offer to Karnataka High Court, Mallya said that he has requested the court that if the settlement is granted then first the employees of Kingfisher be paid.

The trial, which opened at the Magistrates’ Court on December 4 last year, has gone through a series of hearings beyond the initial seven days earmarked for it.