Is VJ Mallya buying Swansea City FC?

India media are running a rumour that VJ Mallya, the disgraced former chairman of United Spirits, wants to buy a Premier League football team, specifically Swansea City, for about £110m.

The team, which narrowly avoided relegation last season, would add to his portfolio of sporting interests, including the Force India Formula 1 team (which he is said to be in the process of renaming the better to attract sponsors) and the Royal Challengers Bangalore Indian Premier League cricket franchise.

Swansea was taken over by an American consortium just over a year ago. Neither side has commented on the rumours.

Mallya, who has been declared a “wilful defaulter” by Indian courts as well as being found in contempt of the Supreme Court for failing to make a full disclosure of his assets, is contesting extradition from Britain to India after fleeing to the UK in March 2016.

At the centre of the case is some £1.1bn in debts and interest Indian banks claim Mallya owes them. He has always contested this sum and maintains that he wishes to agree a settlement.

Meanwhile, India’s legal authorities have now delivered to the Crown Prosecution Service details of the charges against Mallya. They include laundering some £150m through various shell companies in India, Ireland, the US, France and the Seychelles.

That money is alleged to have been part of a loan to Mallya’s now bankrupt Kingfisher Airlines from IDBI bank, formerly the Industrial Development Bank of India. It was said to have been used for purposes such as aircraft leasing and maintenance but, it is alleged, no confirming records have been found.

Mallya denies all the charges all charges against him and claims they are politically motivated. One of his arguments is that Indian jails are substandard compared with European institutions and thus, as he will be imprisoned to await trial immediately he sets foot in India, he will be caused undue suffering.

India’s government has told Britain that anyone extradited from the UK will be lodged in a jail with proper facilities but that nobody will be given preferential treatment. It claims that it has already instructed the Maharashtra regional government to upgrade Mumbai’s Arthur Road prison where Mallya will be held if he is extradited.

The full court hearing on the extradition warrant will be start on December 4. Meanwhile Mallya remains on bail in the UK.

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