- Sunday, December 22, 2024
By: indiaweekly.biz Staff
THE Indian government on Monday (5) told the country’s Supreme Court that “secret” proceedings were going on in the UK to extradite fugitive tycoon Vijay Mallya.
The government, however, said it did not have further details, as it was not a party to the proceedings.
Advocate Rajat Nair, appearing for the Centre, told the court that an extradition request had been made as per the direction of the court.
“Some secret extradition proceedings are going on to which we are not a party,” he said.
“Extradition proceedings have been upheld by the highest court of UK, but it has not been happening as of now.”
Mallya’s lawyer, Ankur Saigal, told the court was not aware what kind of proceedings were going on.
“I have knowledge that my request against extradition has been rejected,” he added.
The court directed Mallya’s lawyers to apprise it by November 2 when can the fugitive businessman will appear before the court.
Earlier, the court had directed Mallya to appear before it on October 5 while dismissing his plea seeking review of the 2017 verdict that held him guilty of contempt for transferring funds to his children in violation of court orders.
Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of worth about £1 billion involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
The Supreme Court had in June directed its registry to explain as to why Mallya’s review petition had not been listed before the concerned court for the last three years.
It had directed the registry to furnish all the details including names of officials who had dealt with the file concerning the review petition in the last three years.
The apex Indian court’s 2017 order had come on a plea by consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), which had said that Mallya had allegedly transferred about £31 million received from British firm Diageo, to his children in “flagrant violation” of various judicial orders.
It was dealing with pleas of lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit the fund received from Diageo.
The banks had then alleged that Mallya concealed the facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in “flagrant violation” of the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court.
Mallya had in May lost his application seeking leave to appeal his extradition to India in the UK Supreme Court, setting a 28-day clock on his removal from the UK.
The UK court’s decision was a big legal setback to the 64-year-old flamboyant businessman, who had earlier lost his high court appeal against an extradition order to India on charges of alleged fraud and money laundering related to unrecovered loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Mallya has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.
