LONDON : A UK court on Thursday rejected fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s request to shift the final hearing date in his extradition case to next year and fixed it for December 4.
Mallya, who is wanted in India for Kingfisher Airlines’ default on loans worth nearly Rs 9,000 crores, has been in the UK since March 2016 and was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on April 18.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian government, told the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London that they had “excellent cooperation” with the Indian authorities in the case and now had sufficient material to establish a prima facie case for the extradition of the 61- year-old former chief of erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines.
“We have completed a review of materials and I am happy to state that we have had excellent cooperation with the Indian authorities in this case,” CPS barrister Mark Summers told the judge. “We are ready and willing to proceed and would invite the court to fix a hearing date at the earliest.” The CPS also informed the court that the Indian authorities had been “anticipating issues” that may block the extradition and had already been engaging on prison conditions in India by giving “detailed assurances” on the matter.
However, Mallya’s defence team claimed they had received hundreds of pages of “further material being relied upon” as evidence only on last evening and that more time should be provided for them to review the material and keep a final date for hearing open in April 2018. “Mallya is keen to engage as constructively as possible with these proceedings…but there remains ongoing uncertainty on the final case. We also need a detailed opening note explaining how all the evidence fits together,” said barrister Ben Watson, arguing on behalf of Mallya.
