Vijay Mallya arrested in London, gets bail; could be extradited to India

Last month the British government certified India's request for extradition

Businessman Vijay Mallya has reportedly been arrested in London by Scotland Yard just weeks after UK set in motion the process of extradition of the industrialist who has been declared a proclaimed offender.

Mallya fled to UK in March 2016 after being pursued in courts by banks seeking to recover about Rs 9,000 crore owed by his Kingfisher Airline. 

Last month, the British government certified India's request and sent it to a district judge for further action.

CNBC-TV18 on Tuesday reported that Mallya has been produced in a local court in the UK and will soon be handed over to India.

Mallya, however, later tweeted that the whole arrest issue was "the usual Indian media hype" and that it was only the scheduled court hearing on extradition that had taken place:

Mallya has avoided several summon notices from Indian courts.  

Despite multiple injunctions, he has failed to appear before investigators at the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Earlier in January this year, a CBI court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Mallya in the Rs 720-crore IDBI Bank loan default case.

Mallya, whose now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, had fled India on March 2, 2016.

No high-profile extradition has taken place from the UK to India since a treaty was signed in 1993, though India has extradited a number of Britons, including Maninderpal Singh, convicted of raping and murdering a British teenager, who had fled to India.

Arrest and preliminary hearing for extradition

In the UK, extradition involves several steps, most of which are time-barred, but allow several tiers of appeal. Once the Secretary of State has certified that the matter can go to court, and if the court is satisfied that enough information has been supplied, an arrest warrant can be issued. After the person has been arrested he is brought before the court and the judge sets a date for the extradition hearing.The hearing must satisfy the judge that the conduct of the individual amounts to an extradition offence. This must then be sent to the Secretary of State for a decision.

More details are awaited.