New Delhi: Beleaguered liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya is seeking permission to appeal against an order signed off by UK home secretary Sajid Javid for him to be extradited to India to face alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crores. Today (July 2, 2019), a two-judge bench of the Administrative Court division of the Royal Courts of Justice in London will hear the application, filed in April.
During the day-long hearing, Mallya’s legal team and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) arguing on behalf of the Indian government will go head to head to reiterate factors for and against the liquor baron’s extradition to Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai. If Mallya is not granted leave to appeal by the London high court at his oral hearing today, he could be extradited to India within days.
Ahead of the hearing, take a look at five recent developments in the case
1. Mallya submitted the “renewal application” in the UK High Court in April, to have another try at appealing against his extradition to India. He failed in his first attempt at an application seeking “leave to appeal” in the court and had five business days to renew that application to seek a brief oral hearing before a High Court judge, where his lawyers will further plead his case against being extradited to India.
2. The UK High Court in May this year directed Mallya to pay British beverage giant Diageo over $135 million in relation to a collateral arrangement. Diageo is seeking a total of $175 million from the 63-year-old businessman and was successful as it was awarded a “summary judgment” by Justice Robin Knowles, who dismissed Mallya’s reliance on an alleged oral promise from Diageo dating back to February 2016.
3. In May, investigative agencies reportedly found messages exchanged between fugitive economic offender Mallya and corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar establishing close ties between the two. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in February told that Deepak Talwar has close links with Vijay Mallya. Talwar, who’s been detained in an alleged corruption case, had “lobbied” for the 62-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss and the two were “very close”.
4. Earlier this year in April, Mallya failed to convince a UK High Court to dismiss an order related to money in one of his London bank accounts. This dealt a blow to his efforts to prevent a consortium of Indian banks getting access to nearly 260,000 pounds. The judge ruled that an interim debt order in favour of SBI and other banks seeking access to funds in Mallya’s ICICI UK bank account “should remain in force” but that the application to make it final should be adjourned until after the hearing of Mallya’s pending bankruptcy petition.
5. In April 2019, Mumbai PMLA court declared Mallya fugitive offender under new fugitive economic offender act against which Vijay Mallay’s lawyers reached Bombay high court to oppose these orders and allegations and for easy liquidation process. For now, ED has asked Vijay Mallya to come back to India and have opposed all the petitions filed by his lawyers and Vijay Mallya.
It is worth mentioning that the embattled businessman was at Oval last month to watch India’s second World Cup 2019 match against Australia. He went to the stadium with his wife, mother and son. When he made his way out of the stadium after watching the match, the crowd surrounded him and booed him with chants of ‘chor hai’.
SOURCE-ET NOW NEWS
