Kingfisher Airlines (Mumbai International) founder Vijay Mallya has lost an appeal against a December 2018 ruling to extradite him from the United Kingdom to India to face allegations of a USD1.25 billion fraud at his now-defunct carrier.
On April 20, judges at the High Court of Justice in London rejected the multimillionaire’s appeal against the earlier decision, ruling that there was a “prima facie case of fraud by false representation,” the Guardian newspaper reported.
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office authorised the extradition in February 2019, saying Mallya was “accused in India of conspiracy to defraud, making false representations and money laundering offences”.
The December 2018 ruling said that Mallya had misrepresented how loans from India’s banks were used, diverting the cash instead to fund his former Force India Formula One team and other projects.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has accused Mallya of deceiving India and Indians, and his government has described the Kingfisher founder - whose private jet had VJM painted in gold on the engines and wingtips - as a “fugitive from justice”.
“There is no place for corruption in India,” Modi has said referring to Mallya. “Those who looted the poor and middle classes will have to return what they have looted.”
Mallya currently lives in a GBP11.5 million pound (USD14.25 million) mansion in the English village of Tewin, according to the Guardian. He has called allegations that he fled India leaving over a billion dollars worth of debts as “ludicrous” and politically motivated. He argues that he made an offer in July 2018 to pay what he owed.
