Even if UK court rules in favour of extradition, Mallya unlikely to return to India early

New Delhi, Dec 10: The Westminster Magistrate's court in the United Kingdom is set to give its verdict on the Vijay Mallya extradition case today. Even if the court is to rule in favour of the extradition, Mallya is unlikely to return to India anytime soon.

Even if the judge were to rule in favour of the extradition and recommend the same to the Home Secretary, Mallya still would have several legal remedies left.

Take the Tiger Hanif case for instance. Even if an individual were to lose all legal challenges, an extradition cannot happen until the Home Secretary signs it off. In the Hanif case, the Home Secretary is yet to take a decision, despite him making a final representation in 2013.

Hanif an accused in the the 1993 blasts case has exhausted all legal remedies in the UK to avoid extradition. However he continues to make representations to the Home Secretary in the UK and is now planning on moving the European Court of Human Rights against his extradition.

Mallya can go ahead and challenge the decision to extradite him before a local court. The courts would then take a call on the matter and at times such issues do drag on for some years the officer also said.

An officer tells OneIndia that normally investigating agencies prefer the deportation process as it is faster. In the case of an extradition there is a lot of procedures which are often time consuming.

India's success rate in UK:

India has not had a success rate where extraditions from the UK are concerned. There are 131 extradition requests made by India pending with the UK. In almost all the cases, the accused persons have told the UK authorities that there is either a political vendetta against them or the chances of them being tortured by the Indian police is high.

Courts in the UK which are approached by such persons have not been entirely helpful either. Even if the government is considering the extradition request, the courts normally come in the way.

The courts in the UK often take a lenient view towards the accused petitioners who claim that they would be tortured. Further the courts also consider seriously when the petitioner alleges that cases had been slapped against him or her out of political vendetta.

Many accused have managed to escape extradition due to the intervention by the UK courts. In the case of Lalit Modi, the government failed to have him extradited.

The case was no different where Nadeem who was charged in the murder of Gulshan Kumar. he was later acquitted in that case.