In the single-minded focus on the ravages of the coronavirus the news that the self-liquidating liquor tycoon Vijaya Mallya might soon be headed home to a prison in Mumbai’s Arthur Road has not got the traction it ought to have received in the pre-pandemic times.
He has exhausted all legal avenues to stall his extradition from the UK bar a pro forma appeal to a higher judicial authority most likely to be dismissed at the threshold. Mallya invited the trouble for himself, borrowing heavily from banks even when realising that the way he ran the since defunct Kingfisher Airlines was not cost-effective.
But like a long series of businessmen who had enriched themselves enormously under the socialist model of capitalism, borrowing heavily and pocketing the money while not returning a dime to the banks, he too banked on his political patrons to write off his loans, some of which he had received at the say-so of the then UPA ministers.
He fled the country when he realised the Modi Government was unwilling to protect him. And it is the same Modi Government which is now dragging him, hand-and foot-tied, and set to make him a very famous resident of the Arthur Road jail.
His ordeal, hopefully, will serve as a warning to Nirav Modi and other fugitives from the law who gobbled up humongous amounts of public money and hot-footed to what they perceived to be safe hideouts in foreign lands. Mallya spent crores on his defence, in the end all in vain.
If Nirav Modi and others of his ilk have any sense, they would save legal costs and submit themselves voluntarily to the Indian authorities. Or else, pay back the lenders from the secret bank vaults in tax havens.
