India on Thursday asked the United Kingdom to speed up the extradition process for businessman Vijay Mallya, reported PTI. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and his UK counterpart Patsy Wilkinson met in New Delhi earlier in the day. Mehrishi submitted a draft to Wilkinson on assisting India on the case, according to The Financial Express.
The Union home secretary also praised the UK government’s effort to extradite Mallya and promised all possible on the case. India also proposed to establish contact between the prosecuting agency in India and the Crown Prosecution to present evidence before the court, according to PTI. A British court will hear the 61-year-old’s extradition case, in which neither of the Indian agencies are direct participants, on May 17.
While New Delhi will keep UK updated about the cases of those wanted by London in India, it wants UK to reciprocate in similar instances. Apart from Mallya’s extradition, the home secretaries of the two countries also discussed the presence of certain suspected Sikh militants in UK, ways to share intelligence inputs on a real-time basis and visa-related matters.
The meeting comes a week after officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate visited London to expedite the extradition process for Mallya. The four-member team led by CBI Additional Director Rakesh Asthana will share information about the loan default cases against Mallya with British authorities.
Mallya was granted bail by a Westminster magistrates’ court in London on April 18, only hours after he was arrested by the Scotland Yard in London. He was released on a conditional deposit of £6.5 lakh (around Rs 5.34 crores). The businessman was arrested on behalf of Indian authorities for his alleged involvement in fraud, a statement issued by the Scotland Yard said.
Mallya, who owes 17 banks in India more than Rs 9,000 crore, has been in UK since March 2016 and had earlier said he would not return to the country. He has been embroiled in a number of cases in India.
The Ministry of External Affairs had submitted an extradition request for Mallya on February 9. Later that month, Indian and UK officials met for two days to discuss deportation cases and pending requests to extradite people from the two countries.
India and UK had signed an extradition treaty in 1992. Till date, only one extradition has taken place under the arrangement. Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel was sent back to India in October 2016 to face trial for his involvement in the post-Godhra riots of 2002.
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