India steps up efforts to extradite former head of United Breweries Vijay Mallya

India is stepping up its efforts to have Vijay Mallya extradited from Britain by constantly raising the case with the British government.

The former head of United Breweries and United Spirits has been convicted in his absence of economic crimes including theft and money laundering plus being found in contempt of the Delhi Supreme Court following the 2012 collapse into bankruptcy of his Kingfisher Airways.

In March 2016 he fled to Britain to avoid arrest, owing a consortium of banks £1.14 billion on which he defaulted.

India’s financial authorities have seized assets to repay the debt but the criminal charges remain.

In 2021 Mallya lost his final legal battle to remain in the UK when the Supreme Court in London refused to hear an appeal on the ground that his case presented no new matters on which it should decide.

Britain’s Home Office has subsequently said that Mallya cannot be extradited to India until a “confidential legal matter” has been resolved. This is though to be an appeal for asylum on the grounds that he would not receive a fair trial.

Such appeals are usually decided within a year but Mallya remains in Britain living on an estate at Tewin in Hertfordshire and in a desirable mansion in fashionable Regent’s Park, London.

One of Mallya’s legal team was quoted as saying that he would “never” be returned to India. Mallya’s case, along with those of several other high level financial fugitives, has been raised at regular intervals at meetings between both governments and India’s Prime Minister, Mahendra Modi, is believed to take a personal interest in its progress.

Modi has raised the issue himself with several UK Prime Ministers at summits such as G20 meetings. Indeed, there have been rumours that India has been stalling on a trade deal with Britain, including lowering tariffs on scotch whisky, in a bid to put pressure on Britain.

But Downing Street insists that it cannot intervene because of the constitutional separation of powers between the government and the judiciary.

Now, however, India is seeking to use bilateral agreements to put more pressure on Mallya.

According to the Times of India, a team of high-level officials headed by a senior Foreign Ministry official is to visit Britain.

It will include representatives of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, India and the UK are legally bound to share information on criminal investigations related to economic offenders.

The Indian team will attempt to identify fugitives’ properties in the UK and other countries to take possession of the “proceeds of crime”, thus putting further pressure on Mallya and his lifestyle.