Vijay Mallya was rather hoping that he could avoid certain unpleasantnesses in India by being in Britain. Surely no UK English court – recall that we have three different legal systems on these islands, four perhaps – would send a distinguished personage like Vijay back to answer impertinent charges about mere money in a country like India? Wrong! The extradition case has been decided and back he goes to face that music. Most of which is about borrowings that need to be repaid alongside similar questions of where it all went. The important point about the ruling being this:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]No sign of a false case being mounted against Mallya, says Judge Emma Arbuthnot[/perfectpullquote]That’s the first hurdle that an extradition needs to leap. So, is this oppression? Something unusual, a singling out of the individual for attention where another would get a pass? The answer there being, well, no. He borrowed lots of money, might have done a bit of fraud, no, this seems like a fair case. No, no one is saying that he’s guilty, this stage only deals with whether it’s not unfair to be looking to have a detailed little chat about matters.
The second hurdle is, well, is there at least the outline of a case here?
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “No sign this is a false case being mounted against him to assuage the BLP’s political masters,” Judge Emma Arbuthno said. Even as the Defence pointed to the “atrocious state of the papers” from government of India, the judge said, There is no doubt that the state of the papers in this case doubled the work of this court”. [/perfectpullquote]It’s not a political case that is.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Mr Mallya’s total debts, including unpaid wages and operating costs, are estimated to exceed $1bn.[/perfectpullquote]A fair old sum there:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Vijay Mallya, the Indian tycoon who was nicknamed the” King of Good Times” can be extradited to India to face a fraud trial, a London court ruled on Monday. The chief magistrate at Westminster magistrates’ court ordered extradition after finding there was a case to answer in India on the fraud allegations. [/perfectpullquote]And that’s the second hurdle there cleared. No, again this is not to prejudge the issue, no one is saying that he’s guilty of anything. Only that, well, gosh aren’t these interesting events? Yes, looks like there should be a trial to get to the bottom of it all. And if there’s going to be a trail then the defendant should be there, no?
Thus Vijay Mallya should be extradited to India on that warrant.