Vijay Mallya extradition: Liquor baron to be brought to Mumbai, will lodge in Arthur Road jail

Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya might soon be extradited to India from United Kingdom, reports said. Investigative sources in the know have told news agency IANS that Mallya would be flown to Mumbai as the case against him is registered there.

He will accompanied by teams of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED). A medical team will conduct check-up at Mumbai airport. He will spend the night at CBI headquarters in Mumbai if he is brought back to India tonight. The liquor baron will be produced in a court later in the day. If he arrives tomorrow morning, he will be taken to court straight away, where CBI and ED will seek his custody, IANS said.

ALSO READ: India is in touch with UK over Vijay Mallya's extradition, says MEA

Mallya is wanted on charges of loan fraud and money laundering in India amounting to Rs 9,000 crore. On May 14, the UK High Court had rejected his application against extradition order to India issued by the Westminster Magistrates' Court and certified by UK Home Secretary, starting the 28-day clock on extradition proceedings.

Mallya, declared a fugitive by India, has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

The High Court verdict in April upheld the 2018 ruling by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at the end of a year-long extradition trial in December 2018 that the flashy former Kingfisher Airlines boss had a case to answer in the Indian courts.

ALSO READ: UK Court rejects Vijay Mallya's appeal against extradition to India

She found there was "clear evidence of dispersal and misapplication of the loan funds" and accepted a prima facie case of fraud and a conspiracy to launder money against Mallya, which has now also been accepted by the High Court.

The Chief Magistrate had also dismissed any bars to extradition on the grounds of the prison conditions under which the businessman would be held, as she accepted the Indian government's assurances that he would receive all necessary medical care behind bars at Barrack 12 in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.

India and the UK have an Extradition Treaty signed in 1992 and in force since November 1993. Two major extraditions have taken place under this Treaty so far: Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, who was sent back to India in 2016 to face trial in connection with his involvement in the post-Godhra riots of 2002, and more recently alleged bookie Sanjeev Chawla, sent back in February this year to face match-fixing charges.

ALSO READ: Vijay Mallya loses final appeal; extradition process to begin in 28 days