SC seeks report from Centre on Vijay Mallya extradition

New Delhi, Nov 02: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to file a status report in six weeks on proceedings in the UK to extradite fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya to India.

Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the United Kingdom. He 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.

In June, India urged the UK not to consider any request for asylum by Mallya as there appeared to be no ground for his persecution in the country.

The UK government had indicated that Mallya is unlikely to be extradited to India anytime soon, saying there is a legal issue that needed to be resolved before his extradition can be arranged.

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 former Kingfisher Airlines boss had a "case to answer" in the Indian courts.