India's top team to hasten extradition of Mallya, Nirav Modi in UK: Report

The Indian team will be headed by a senior officer from the MEA. Some meetings have also been scheduled with UK officials to seek pending information on the seized assets of the wanted fugitives

A high-level team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will soon depart for the United Kingdom in a bid to expedite the extradition of wanted fugitives Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Sanjay Bhandari, the Times of India reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, the team will be headed by a senior officer from the Ministry of External Affairs, sources said. Some meetings have also been scheduled by the Indian High Commission in London with UK officials to seek pending information on the seized assets of the wanted fugitives under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT).

Vijay Mallya

Beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya was declared a fugitive in 2019 under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, about four years after he fled to the UK in March 2016. Mallya is wanted over defaulting 17 Indian banks an estimated Rs 9,000 crore that was loaned to now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA).

Nirav Modi

Diamond merchant Nirav Modi, wanted in India on fraud and money laundering charges, is currently lodged in Thameside prison, located in London. He had fled from India on January 1, 2018 and was arrested in March 2019 following an extradition warrant based on CBI and ED’s charges against him.

In 2022, Modi had lost his legal battle in the highest UK court against being extradited to India in the estimated $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case.

Sanjay Bhandari

The alleged middleman and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari is also facing a money laundering probe and had fled to the UK in 2016. He is currently contesting an order from the UK government to extradite him to India, which was followed based on a request by the CBI and ED.

He is accused of concealing overseas assets, tax evasion and other charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Notably, the ED, in December, had moved a court in Delhi to confiscate two UK properties of Bhandari. The probe agency had also alleged that Robert Vadra, son-in-law of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, "renovated and stayed" at one of the properties which is a "proceeds of crime" in the probe. The ED has confiscated the assets of the fugitives in the past as well.

Vadra has denied in the past that he owned any London property directly or indirectly.

(With inputs from agencies)