Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : In a further setback to fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the UK Home Secretary on Monday gave the green signal to his extradition. On December 10, 2018, a UK court ruled Mallya guilty and ordered his deportation to India.
Today, in another step forward the UK Home Office upheld the lower court ruling.
The UK Home Office spokesperson said, “On February 3, the Secretary of State, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed the order for Vijay Mallya’s extradition to India. Vijay Mallya is accused in India of conspiracy to defraud, making false representations and money laundering offences.”
Mallya now has 14 days to apply for leave of appeal to a higher court.
Welcoming the extradition order from the UK home office Indian government sources said, “We have taken note of the decision of the UK Home Secretary to sign on the order for Vijay Mallya’s extradition to India. While we welcome the UK Government’s decision in the matter, we await the early completion of the legal process for his extradition.”
The move comes at a time when the government faces opposition wrath following the CBI raids in Kolkata against the city’s police commissioner. Following the extradition order, taking a jibe at political opponents, Union Minister Arun Jaitley wrote, “Modi Government clears one more step to get Mallya extradited while Opposition rallies around the Saradha Scamsters.”
Official sources had told The Tribune earlier that while the judiciary in UK is ‘completely independent’, what helped push India’s case was Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking up the issue personally with his counterpart Theresa May when he visited London for the Commonwealth summit in April this year. Later at a press conference, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj revealed that in his conversation Modi told May that Mallya need not worry about the condition of Indian prisons which had once housed the country’s freedom fighters.
