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.<\/p>\n
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 \u00a0to 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The 62-year-old business tycoon had earlier failed in his appeal against the extradition order in Westminster Magistrate’s Court which had \u00a0ordered 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.<\/p>\n
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 \u00a0filed by India against Music Director Nadeem Saifee of the Nadeem-Shravan duo, accused in Gulshan Kumar case.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. \u00a0This 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 \u00a0arrest. 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.<\/p>\n
In Mallya’s case, however, \u00a0India 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.<\/p>\n
Earlier, India has succeeded in extraditing gangster Abu Salem from Portugal to India as it had submitted evidence against him in a Lisbon \u00a0Court 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).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 \u00a0fugitive businessman extradited to India.<\/p>\n
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 \u00a0of Banks in India, led by State Bank of India.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
He has contended that the case against him was “politically motivated” and that he had sought loans from banks to keep running his \u00a0loss-making airline. Mallya denied that he wanted to defraud the banks.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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 \u00a0human rights violation, Mallya denied this in a U.K trial court by examining witnesses to prove his credentials that he was not dishonest.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
May 2005 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Mallya launches Kingfisher Airlines to mark 18th birthday of his son, Siddhartha
\nJune 2007 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Kingfisher buys a stake of 26 per cent in Air Deccan for dollars 135.57 million
\nApril 2008 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Deccan Aviation, which ran Air Deccan, merged with Kingfisher Airline
\nSept 2008 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Kingfisher launches international operations by starting a flight from Bangalore to London
\nOct 2009 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Kingfisher Airline suffers losses and announces return of 19 leased aircraft to lessers in a period of next ten months.
\nSept 2011 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Total 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.
\nNov 2011 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Kingfisher 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.
\nDec 2011 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 It came to light that the Airline has failed to deposit with Government the Income Tax deducted from staff’s salaries since many months.
\nOct 2012 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 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.
\nNov 2012 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 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.
\nFeb 2013 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Lenders start recovery process to recover the debts from Kingfisher Airline.
\nNov 2015 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 State Bank of India labels Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries Holdings as “willful defaulters.”
\nMar 2016 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 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.
\nFeb 2017 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 India requests U.K to hasten the extradition process against fugitives including Mallya.
\nApril 2017 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Mallya arrested in London by Scotland Yard and produced before Westminister Magistrate’s Court. He gets bail and the extradition process against him begins.
\nDec 2018 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 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.
\nFeb 2019 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A Magistrate Court in U.K orders Mallya’s extradition
\nFeb 2019 : \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 UK Home Sec approves Mallya’s extradition order. He gets 14 days to appeal in High court.
\nApril 2019: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Mallya appeals against the extradition order in London High Court.
\nJuly 2019: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0London High Court rejects his plea but gives Mallya right to appeal in Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
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\nContributed by Sunil Shivdasani, Legal Editor of Finance Intellect
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