E-Paper
UK court rejects Vijay Mallya’s request to appeal against extradition order
A UK court has rejected fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya’s plea against extradition to India. This brings Mallya’s return to India one step closer.
In another legal win for India, a judge in the appeals court of the high court has rejected controversial businessman Vijay Mallya’s application for permission to appeal against home secretary Sajid Javid’s February 4 order to extradite him to India.
Mallya had applied to the court on February 14 and the Home Office submitted its response within the stipulated 20 days. Legal experts say the case is usually allowed to go for a full appeals hearing if new grounds or evidence not previously considered in lower courts are cited.
A spokesman for the judiciary said on Monday: “The application for permission to appeal was refused by Mr Justice William Davis on 05/04/2019. The appellant has 5 business days to apply for oral consideration”.
“If a renewal application is made, it will be listed before a High Court judge and dealt with at a hearing”, he added.
The refusal suggests that the judge may not have seen merit in Mallya’s application. Further options before Mallya include approaching the Supreme Court, which usually grants permission to appeal if a case involves a matter of public interest; and submitting a ‘representation’ to the home secretary.
Also read: Beer king Vijay Mallya may have to curb his $24,000-a-week life
The recourse to ‘representation’ to prevent extradition on human rights and grounds possibly on new facts has been previously used by Tiger Hanif, who is wanted in India in connection with blasts in Surat in 1993.
Tiger Hanif lost all legal challenges in 2013, but has since made representations to prevent extradition to the home secretary, who has not yet taken a decision.
Facing charges in India of financial irregularities amounting to over Rs 9,000 crore, Mallya has been putting forth his version of events through social media in recent weeks, most recently on March 31 following an interview to a television channel by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Also read: Vijay Mallya’s extradition will speed up trial, jail barrack ready for him: ED
In a series of tweets, Mallya used the reported financial problems of Jet Airways to plug his case, demanding that his assets placed before the Karnataka high court be used to pay off banks and other creditors, adding: “It will help them to save Jet Airways if nothing else”.
Noting that banks were reportedly bailing out Jet Airways, Mallya said: “I invested 4000 crores into Kingfisher Airlines to save the Company and its employees. Not recognised and instead slammed in every possible way.”
“The same PSU Banks let India’s finest airline with the best employees and connectivity fail ruthlessly. Double standards under NDA”, he added.
Wishing banks had similarly bailed out his Kingfisher Airlines, he said: “BJP spokesman eloquently read out my letters to PM Manmohan Singh and alleged that PSU Banks under the UPA Government had wrongly supported Kingfisher Airlines”.
“Media decimated me for writing to the PM. I wonder what has changed now under the NDA Government”.
Mallya has previously taken to twitter to seek to change the narrative that he “stole” money from India and fled, reiterating that he had offered to return the loans, wondering why the government was not taking up the offer.
