Mallya given final extradition appeal in July

Vijay Mallya, the former head of India’s United Spirits, will have a final chance on 2 July to convince the High Court in London why he should not be extradited to face charges of fraud and money laundering.

(Photo: Wiki)

His extradition to India was ordered by Westminster Magistrates Court in December and confirmed by the Home Secretary, Sajid Javed, in February.

At the hearing, his legal team will make an oral plea, having already failed to convince the court in writing that the charges against Mallya are without foundation.

If the High Court further confirms the extradition warrant, Mallya’s final recourse to prevent his enforced removal to India within 28 days would be to convince the European Court of Human Justice that under the provisions of its Rule 39 he would not receive a fair trial in India or that he would be held in inhumane conditions.

Legal sources say it will be difficult to make such as case as the Indian authorities have upgraded the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai to meet his medical needs and have already convinced Westminster Magistrates that he will await trial in conditions that meet international standards.

Mallya has, however, always maintained that the charges against him are trumped up and politically motivated and some commentators on the subcontinent have speculated that if the national elections now in progress result in a change of government the official attitude to Mallya might soften.

Meanwhile, the tycoon, who fled to the UK in March 2016 on the eve of a warrant being issued for his arrest in India over debts of £1.15 billion associated with his failed Kingfisher Airlines, continues to challenge the processes of the Indian courts.

During a hearing on Thursday, Mallya’s lawyer told the Bombay High Court that by declaring him a fugitive economic offender and allowing attachment of his assets, a special court had given him an “economic death penalty”, saying that the “debts and the interest on such debts are mounting”.

In challenging several provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act that have been used against him, his counsel said Mallya had sufficient assets to pay off his “debts but the government won’t allow the use of these assets to clear the debts.”

Mallya’s counsel asked the court for an injunction against the confiscation of Mallya’s properties in India, but this was refused.

Earlier Mallya himself had issued a series of tweets, criticising the government and banks for spending money on legal fees to recover money from him in the UK when he had offered to repay them in full in India.