‘Secret’ legal matter in UK cause for delay in Vijay Mallya’s extradition, says MEA

Ministry of External Affairs in India on Thursday said that the delay in extradition of fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya was due to a ‘secret’ case in the UK that the authorities there are dealing with. They said this is despite the fact that Mallya has exhausted all his legal options and is supposed to be sent to India to face the laws of the land for the alleged fraud committed by him.

“After the dismissal of Vijay Mallya’s appeal against extradition orders, he tried to appeal to the Supreme Court which was rejected too. He’s exhausted all appeals. We’re in constant touch with the UK govt. We’re told a legal matter has to be resolved without which he can’t be extradited,” said MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava during his weekly briefing on Thursday.

This comes days after the Shiv Sena slammed the Centre for telling the Supreme Court that it is unaware of the ‘secret’ proceedings underway in the UK against Mallya.

On October 5, MEA had submitted before the Supreme Court that the extradition of Vijay Mallya was ordered by the highest court of the United Kingdom but it has not come into effect yet.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ministry, said that the government is neither aware of the nature of the proceedings nor is a party to it in the UK Supreme Court which had cleared the extradition of Mallya to India.

“On December 10, 2018, the Magistrate Court (UK) had ordered the extradition of Vijay Mallya. He appealed against the order which was admitted by the High Court and later on April 20, 2020, the court dismissed the appeal. He then applied for ‘leave to appeal’ which was also dismissed by the court on May 14, 2020,” elaborated the MEA spokesperson.

India is in touch with UK authorities for the repatriation of Vijay Mallya at the earliest.