Fugitive Liquor Baron and owner of defunct Kingfisher Airlines may have got a breather when a London court allowed him in July 2019 to file an appeal challenging the order of extradition, issued against him by a U.K authority, to India.
Mallya, who had escaped to London on March 2, 2016, after he faced a string of cases in India, had sought permission from the U.K High Court to appeal against an order signed by U.K Home Secretary Sajid Javed for him to get exradited to India to face alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crore obtained as loan from a consortium of banks in India ostensibly to fund his loss making airline.
It seems that Mallya may be on a weaker ground this time as the U.K High Court also rejected his plea against the extradition order, though it gave him a chance to file an appeal in the U.K Supreme Court, say legal sources.
So far, there is no news about his filing an appeal in the U.K Supreme Court but once he decides to go for it, then it would take at least six months for U.K Supreme Court to decide his fate on extradition case filed by the Indian Government, the sources opined.
The 62-year-old business tycoon had earlier failed in his appeal against the extradition order in Westminster Magistrate’s Court which had ordered Mallya’s extradition to India. The court, while rejecting his plea, had sent its order to U.K Home office which issued the imputed extradition order.
However, this time it will not be easy for Mallya to challenge the extradition order in U.K Supreme Court. “Mallya will not succeed”, says Ujjwal Nikam, special public prosecutor who had many years ago appeared for Government of India in an extradition case filed by India against Music Director Nadeem Saifee of the Nadeem-Shravan duo, accused in Gulshan Kumar case.
“He has remote chances to succeed. The Supreme Court will not entertain his plea as the courts there have given a concurrent finding. In all probability, Mallya would lose the case”, Nikam told Finance Intellect (FI). “The British and Indian laws are similar. When there is a concurrent finding by the courts in U.K and India, there is little chance of Mallya succeeding unless a question of law is involved and in this case there is no such issue raised by him”, said Nikam.
“It is matter of time that Mallya is extradited to India to face the alleged charges of defrauding Indian Banks to the tune of crores of rupees, Nikam added.
Asked why had Indian Government lost extradition case filed against Nadeem in a U.K court, Nikam did not comment saying that both these cases were totally different.
However, a close look at the U.K Court Judgement found that the London court was convinced that Nadeem will not get a fair trial in India. This is so because when Nadeem was in London, perhaps to evade his arrest in India, the then police commissioner of Mumbai had addressed a press conference in Mumbai to say that they have evidence to show that Nadeem was involved in the conspiracy and hence he had escaped to London to evade his arrest. The statement was made without interrogating him and without giving Nadeem an opportunity to defend himself. Besides losing the case, the Indian Government had to pay a hefty fine in this case.
In Mallya’s case, however, India has sufficient evidence against the liquor baron and the U.K courts Magistrate and High Court have already given orders favoring extradition of Mallya to India.
Earlier, India has succeeded in extraditing gangster Abu Salem from Portugal to India as it had submitted evidence against him in a Lisbon Court which, however, ordering Salem’s extradition, had asked India not to try Salem for offenses punishable with more than 20 years (other than life or death imprisonment).
In the case of Mallya, he has not denied taking loans from Indian banks, though he has asked waiver of interest from them. He has also expressed his desire to pay back the principal amount of his debts. The only ground he has harped on is that he will not get a fair trial in India but the London Courts have not accepted his plea.
While it remains to be seen whether Mallya will win or not, all eyes are set on this case, as India had made it a prestige issue to get the fugitive businessman extradited to India.
India’s stand on Mallya’s extradition
The extradition case names Vijay Mallya as a “willful defaulter.” Kingfisher Airlines, owned by Mallya, owes over Rs 9000 crores (1.25 billion) to a consortium of Banks in India, led by State Bank of India.
Kingfisher Airlines, besides defaulting on Bank loans, also has to pay Rs 300 crores as salaries to about 3000 employees. The now defunct airlines has not made any profits in its last seven years of flying.
India and U.K had signed an extradition treaty in 1993 which has not been used so often. India was earlier successful in extraditing a 2002 Gujarat riots accused but had failed to bring back Music Composer Nadeem Saifee, accused in Gulshan Kumar case, to India.
However, it would take some time for Mallya to get extradited to India as the London High Court has allowed him to appeal in Supreme Court, while rejecting his extradition plea.
Mallya fled to London in 2016 and has been living in U.K since then. He has been declared as a Proclaimed offender by the Indian Courts and his assets and immobile properties, valued at Rs 13,000 crore, have been seized by the Indian authori
What is Mallya’s defence?
He has contended that the case against him was “politically motivated” and that he had sought loans from banks to keep running his loss-making airline. Mallya denied that he wanted to defraud the banks.
“I did not borrow the loans but my airlines wanted money to offset the losses suffered by it during the course of business. I was just a guarantor, so no fraud was perpetrated by me as has been alleged by the banks,” said Mallya in U.K courts. Mallya offered to pay100 per cent Principal amount of his dues to his creditors. However, he said, he could not pay interest thereon.
While the Indian Government said that Mallya was “dishonest” by not paying his debts to the creditors and that it was not a case of human rights violation, Mallya denied this in a U.K trial court by examining witnesses to prove his credentials that he was not dishonest.
Mallya’s lawyers played a video in the court to show the conditions prevailing in Aurthur Road Central prison in Mumbai on the ground that this would amount to human rights violation if Mallya was put behind the bars.
Following is the chronology of events :
May 2005 : Mallya launches Kingfisher Airlines to mark 18th birthday of his son, Siddhartha
June 2007 : Kingfisher buys a stake of 26 per cent in Air Deccan for dollars 135.57 million
April 2008 : Deccan Aviation, which ran Air Deccan, merged with Kingfisher Airline
Sept 2008 : Kingfisher launches international operations by starting a flight from Bangalore to London
Oct 2009 : Kingfisher Airline suffers losses and announces return of 19 leased aircraft to lessers in a period of next ten months.
Sept 2011 : Total Debts of Kingfisher airline mount to dollars 1.7 billion. There were reports about the airline not paying salaries to staff and defaulting on fuel bills.
Nov 2011 : Kingfisher Airline grounds some airplanes to save the cost of operations involved. It falls to fifth position from third in the previous month. The Airline also faced further crises as it had to cancel its flights after fuel companies asked Kingfisher to pay fuel bills in cash and stopped credit.
Dec 2011 : It came to light that the Airline has failed to deposit with Government the Income Tax deducted from staff’s salaries since many months.
Oct 2012 : Kingfisher Airline grounded as staff refuses to work due to non-payment of salaries since many months. The license of the Airline is also suspended by the Regulatory Authority.
Nov 2012 : British Spirits Giant Diagco acquires a 53.4 per cent stake in Mallya’s United Spirits for over dollars 2 Billion. However, this money is not used to pay off the airlines debts to the banks.
Feb 2013 : Lenders start recovery process to recover the debts from Kingfisher Airline.
Nov 2015 : State Bank of India labels Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries Holdings as “willful defaulters.”
Mar 2016 : Mallya escapes to London after Banks start recovery proceedings against him in Indian Courts. Later, through Twitter, he blamed the media and the banks of spreading lies about him. He defended himself saying that he was a regular visitor to London and that he had travelled to and from India to U.K in the ordinary course of his business. He denied fleeing India.
Feb 2017 : India requests U.K to hasten the extradition process against fugitives including Mallya.
April 2017 : Mallya arrested in London by Scotland Yard and produced before Westminister Magistrate’s Court. He gets bail and the extradition process against him begins.
Dec 2018 : Mallya, on Twitter, appeals to his creditors to accept from him the Principal amount of his loans he has to pay them. This amounts to half of the Airline’s dues. He cites the losses made by Kingfisher Airlines as a result of which he was unable to pay them.
Feb 2019 : A Magistrate Court in U.K orders Mallya’s extradition
Feb 2019 : UK Home Sec approves Mallya’s extradition order. He gets 14 days to appeal in High court.
April 2019: Mallya appeals against the extradition order in London High Court.
July 2019: London High Court rejects his plea but gives Mallya right to appeal in Supreme Court.
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Contributed by Sunil Shivdasani, Legal Editor of Finance Intellect
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