Vijay Mallya extradition: SC asks Center to file status report in six weeks

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Central Government to file a status report in the case pertaining to the extradition of fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya. SC told Center to submit the report withing six weeks.

A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Ashok Bhushan was hearing a contempt case in which Mallya was held guilty. On August 31, the top court had directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure the presence of Mallya to appear before it on October 5. It had also dismissed Mallya’s plea seeking a review of the 2017 verdict that held him guilty of contempt for transferring $40 million to his children in violations of court orders.

The direction comes almost a month after the centre told the apex court that secret proceedings were going on in the UK courts in an effort to extradite Mallya.

In the last status report filed before the court, the Ministry of Home Affairs had said that the extradition request for Mallya was forwarded to the UK on February 9, 2017. In December 2018, Senior District Judge, Westminster Magistrate’s Court, London recommended his extradition to India.

Mallya challenged this before the London High Court, which dismissed it on April 20, 2020. He then moved the HC seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. However, the high court rejected the request on May 14, 2020.

The liquor baron, who is fighting his extradition to India, faces fraud and money laundering charges in a bank loan default case of over Rs.9000 crore resulting from the collapse of his defunct company Kingfisher Airlines