Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya was on Thursday denied permission to appeal to the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court against a Britain High Court order that upheld a 2018 ruling for his extradition to India to face fraud and money laundering charges resulting from the collapse of his defunct company Kingfisher Airlines, PTI reported.
The businessman fled India and moved to London in March 2016. Mallya owes Indian banks more than Rs 9,000 crore.
The latest ruling ends Mallya’s legal options to challenge his extradition. The order will now be sent to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to formally certify the process to extradite him to India within 28 days.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Mallya’s appeal to certify a point of law was rejected on all three counts – hearing oral submissions, grant a certificate on the questions as drafted, and to grant permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Earlier in the day, the 64-year-old businessman asked the Centre to take his money “unconditionally” and drop all charges against him. He has repeatedly denied the charges against him and offered to pay back 100% of the amount borrowed by Kingfisher Airlines, but neither the banks nor the Enforcement Directorate have been willing to accept the offer. He also claimed that the allegations against him were related to the borrowing of Rs 900 crore only.
India submitted an extradition request to the United Kingdom in February 2017 after Mallya made it clear he would not return. In July, the United Kingdom High Court allowed him to challenge his extradition order.
In 2018, the High Court in London had rejected Mallya’s argument that the case was motivated by political considerations, that he would not receive a fair trial in India and that extradition would infringe on his human rights.
In January this year, a court in Mumbai allowed the banks to utilise Mallya’s movable assets to recover the money they are owed. On January 6, the Supreme Court said Mallya cannot cite the pendency of his plea in the top court to delay insolvency proceedings in courts “anywhere else in the world”.
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