Soon after making it to the headlines for being arrested in London, it took only three hours for businessman Vijay Mallya to bail himself out of custody. Mallya, who has left a number of Indian banks in worries over unpaid loans of about Rs 9,000 crore tied to his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, later took to Twitter to defend himself and mock the media.
Usual Indian media hype. Extradition hearing in Court started today as expected.
— Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 18, 2017
“Usual Indian media hype. Extradition hearing in Court started today as expected,” Mallya tweeted.
His arrest didn’t last long and Mallya made it clear once again that nabbing him won’t be an easy task. According to Mallya, this was just a scheduled summons initiated by the court to explain his position and submit his documents. His comments came even as Scotland Yard said in an official statement, “Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Extradition Unit have this morning, Tuesday 18 April arrested a man on an extradition warrant.
Vijay Mallya, 61 (18/12/1955), was arrested on behalf of the Indian authorities in relation to accusations of fraud.” The statement further said that Mallya was arrested after attending a central London police station, and was to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court later
He will next appear before the London court on May 17, and the judiciary will decide on the merits of India’s request for extradition. It remains to be seen how far the Indian government is willing to go to ensure his extradition. The Westminster Magistrates’ Court granted him bail on a 650,000 pound bond.
Mallya has made it clear that he will continue to pursue his legal fight against the extradition.
India had asked Britain to extradite Mallya to face trial after the liquor and aviation tycoon fled last March. Indian banks declared him as a ‘willful defaulter’ and sued to recover about $1.4 billion owed by Kingfisher.
Mallya has repeatedly dismissed all charges against him and has been absconding out of India since March 2, 2016.
