Vijay Mallya to appeal against extradition
1 min read . Updated: 20 Dec 2018, 01:16 AM IST
PremiumMallya can either choose to go to the Court of Appeal, or if he loses, he can appeal to UK's Supreme Court
New Delhi: United Breweries chairman Vijay Mallya has set the wheels in motion for appealing against his extradition order, about a week after a UK court ordered him to be extradited to India.
Mallya had said that his legal team would “follow legal procedures" but he will now move a high court in Britain to appeal against the order.
Mallya can either choose to go to the Court of Appeal, in which case the process could take months and India’s agencies may not be able to expedite it, or if he loses, he can apply for the right to appeal to UK’s Supreme Court.
The United Breweries chairman had been given a window of 14 days to file an appeal against the extradition order.
The Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, on 10 December, ordered Mallya’s extradition to India in a verdict that is a major breakthrough in the case for India’s investigative agencies, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The agencies have charged Mallya with defrauding loans of up to ₹ 9,000 crore.
Mallya has, in the past, challenged his extradition on grounds of “human rights conditions" in Indian jails. He has also contested his extradition on the grounds that the case against him is “politically motivated" and that the loans he has been accused of defaulting on were sought to keep his now-defunct airline afloat.
Judge Emma Arbuthnot had dismissed Mallya’s claims that the extradition was a matter of “political vendetta", adding that the judgement was also being based on the e-mail exchanges between the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) and IDBI Bank, since the allegation was that of “fraud."
A formal extradition request against Mallya was given by the Union external affairs ministry to the British high commission in New Delhi in February 2017.
