Vijay Mallya’s extradition: Centre to file report on status in 6 weeks

New Delhi, Nov 02: The Centre will file in six weeks a status report on the extradition of Vijay Mallya. The submission was made by the Centre after the Supreme Court sought to know the status of Mallya's extradition.

The Ministry of External Affairs had told the Supreme Court that the extradition of Vijay Mallya was ordered by the highest court in the United Kinggom.

The court also sought to know details of the likely date of completion and when Mallya would appear before the SC for quantification of the sentence to be awarded to be for contempt of court. He has already been found guilty for contempt.

The Centre informed the SC that it is not aware of the secret ongoing proceedings in UK which is delaying former liquor baron Vijay Mallya to India.

The Centre had said it is neither aware of the nature of the proceedings nor is a party to it.

Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the United Kingdom. He has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

In June, India urged the UK not to consider any request for asylum by Mallya as there appeared to be no ground for his persecution in the country.

The UK government had indicated that Mallya is unlikely to be extradited to India anytime soon, saying there is a legal issue that needed to be resolved before his extradition can be arranged.

The High Court verdict in April upheld the 2018 ruling by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at the end of a year-long extradition trial in December 2018 that the former Kingfisher Airlines boss had a "case to answer" in the Indian courts.