Govt to hire UK arbitrator to bring back Vijay Mallya

The government is planning to get on board a UK-based “independent arbitrator” to appear on behalf of Indian authorities and put up a strong case of extradition against absconding liquor baron Vijay Mallya, an Enforcement Directorate (ED) official said.

The move comes in view of India’s past experiences with extradition cases and long-drawn legal processes.

Mallya was briefly arrested in London on Tuesday over accusations of fraud by Indian probe agencies and presented before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court for an extradition hearing. He was released on bail a few hours later.

The 61-year-old businessman had fled India last year after banks started seeking his arrest over unpaid loans tied to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

“The person who will represent the case should be well-versed with the judicial system of the country where the matter will be heard. The court of law differs from country to country, so it is essential that the representative knows the law and legal remedies of that country,” said the official cited above.

Sources said there were at least a dozen instances in the past when Indian agencies lost cases due to lack of understanding of the State laws.

Some officials said the chances of Mallya being extradited anytime soon were less than 30 per cent, considering the “civil” nature of charges against him. He can seek relief on the grounds that he is not one among the “big loan defaulters”. Loan default cannot be a major factor to extradite any person, another official of the enforcement agency said.
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Modi govt to reap political gains from action against Mallya, Subrata Roy

It is perhaps easy to miss the coincidence of two developments taking place in quick succession this week, but their significance in national politics should not be underestimated. Nor should there be any celebrations over an early resolution to the problems that those developments are seeking to address.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ordered the auction of the Aamby Valley property of the Sahara supremo, Subrata Roy, to help recover from him dues that market regulator, the Securities and Exchange  Board of India, estimates to be over Rs 47,000 crore, including interest. Of this amount, the group has so far paid back Rs 11,477 crore.

A day later, the United Kingdom (UK) authorities started extradition proceedings against Vijay Mallya, who allegedly owes over Rs 9,000 crore to banks in India and has been staying away from India for the last 13 months. After the UK Secretary of State certified that extradition proceedings can begin, the London police arrested Mallya and produced him before a local court, which granted him conditional bail.

Purely from an economic governance point of view, these steps mark just the beginning of what would certainly be a long process of recovering dues from Subrata Roy and Vijay Mallya. But that the process has begun augurs well for a country where action against malfeasance is rare and when the process does start, it is excruciatingly slow. And worse, when the process ends after many years, the accused often get away with relative ease.

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