Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya has entered the latest stage of fight to avoid extradition to his homeland, the troubled tycoon now daily spending a little over 15 hours with a battery of lawyers at his mansion in Hertfordshire that was once owned by the father of F1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
In private conversations with his friends, both in London and India, Mallya has repeatedly insisted that the money laundering charges against him were baseless and how he will have some solace when son, Siddharth, joins him from Los Angeles in a fortnight.
People in London have seen Mallya being driven in a silver Maybach bearing the initials VJM on its numberplate. And every time he walked into a shop or a restaurant in London, Mallya has happily posed for photographs, even selfies and told everyone he was innocent, framed as a 'billion pound thief' by politicians of all hues in India who once loved to have him on their sides.
Tired of what he still calls a witch hunt, Mallya has even compared himself with Robert Vadra, the latter also probed for his alleged illegal investments in India. But the move has boomeranged—Mallya was snubbed by the Gandhi son-in-law who exhorted the tycoon to return to India and face the courts.
But Mallya is still not convinced about a fair trial in India. “I deny all allegations that have been made and I will continue to deny them. I have not eluded any court. If it is my lawful duty to be here, I’m happy to be here,” he recently told reporters outside the Westminster Magistrate’s court.
But that the legal process to avoid extradition is taking an inordinately long time is worrying Mallya, the presence of officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in London is denting the tycoon’s once flashy image. Worse, his globe-trotting lifestyle has virtually come to a halt. Suddenly, the 'poster boy of party' has turned into the 'poster boy of corruption.
That is not good news for the ex-chairman of United Spirits, who, as per estimates of the Finance Ministry, owes Indian banks a little over Rs 9,000 crores. There are also charges by the ED that the flamboyant multimillionaire and co-owner of the Force India Formula1 team was supporting his F1 team with money-laundered cash.
The ED and CBI have submitted documents to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which is arguing the Vijay Mallya extradition case on behalf of the Indian government. The move prompted a brief arrest of Mallya, for the second time since April 2017, but Mallya denied the charges and was released on bail.
The incident, for the second time, made many to think whether the investigating agencies had enough details of what they claimed was illegal cash transfer by the tycoon. The first attempt by the Indian government to extradite Mallya fell flat when the court dismissed the charges. “The new charge is essentially showing where the money went to, for example, it is alleged that some of the funds ended up with the Force India racing team,” the CPS said in a statement.
The Indian government has also assured the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London through the CPS that Mallya will be safe in an Indian jail if sent back to India to face trial. The Indian government wants to lodge Mallya in the Arthur Road jail where he will get full security cover as an undertrial prisoner, the CPS has been briefed. In short, the Indian government is trying hard to convince the British court that Mallya’s apprehension about threats in the Indian jails is totally misleading.
The extradition hearing is due to start on December 4, 2017 and Mallya, once known as the 'Branson of Bangalore' must prove he is innocent, never transferred cash illegally outside India and is ready to clear an alleged debt of Rs 9,000 crores owed to state-owned banks after the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines. An estimated 4,000 Kingfisher Airlines employees grounded the carrier in October, 2012 after they went without pay for seven months.
Mallya is trying hard to prove his innocence and that he had actually offered to settle the dues by making a near 60 per cent payment but the banks were not allowed by the Finance Ministry to take the hit. He knows his image of a billionaire playboy has taken a hit and every time the social media discusses his beer company Kingfisher’s take on the Pirelli calendar, angry, unpaid employees of Kingfisher Airlines flood the social media with angry posts highlighting their plight without jobs for nearly five years.
(FILE) Kingfisher calendar image
The Indian government is trying its bit to recover the lost cash. Mallya’s private Airbus A319 jet that had the initials painted in gold on the engines and wing tips until it was put up for auction. Mallya’s 12,350 square feet Goa mansion was sold for Rs 73 crore to actor-producer Sachiin Joshi but the sale has run into rough weather after it was revealed that the buyer was allegedly trying to take over the property by paying only 10 per cent of the total amount.
But pressures are mounting on Mallya. In Delhi, the Corporate Affairs Ministry will soon file prosecution cases by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) against Mallya and others in the Kingfisher Airlines matter.
The SFIO, it is reliably learnt, has recommended various actions against individuals and entities for violations in the Kingfisher Airlines matter, including examining the role of some banks as well as bank officials in sanctioning credit facilities to the airline apart from action against promoter directors.
For the December 4 showdown that will last for eight days, Mallya has lined up as many as four experts, including Scottish jails expert Alan Mitchell who was successful in blocking the extradition of Sanjeev Kumar Chawla, wanted in India for his role in alleged cricket match-fixing. Besides Mitchell, Mallya’s list of witnesses includes Margaret Sweeney of Force India F1 team, aviation expert B. Humphreys and experts on Indian law and politics.
There are chances Mallya’s battery of lawyers will even argue about the way criminal investigations and prosecutions are carried out in India. A senior professor from the University of London has even questioned CBI’s integrity. Professor Lawrence Saez from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) has, in a statement of impartiality, cited the example of the Gujarat-cadre controversial IPS officer Rakesh Asthana whose promotion to CBI as a special director was objected by none other than Aloke Varma, the CBI director. A member of the World Economic Forum’s India Agenda Council, Saez will assist Mallya in the case.
Mallya knows the government [read Narendra Modi] wants him back to prove a point in India's big fight against corruption. And the very word 'corrupt' is Mallya’s biggest bugbear. He says he wants to pay but the banks are not ready to come to the discussion table. The Indian government says the case of the missing cash is just the tip of the iceberg.
All eyes on December 4, 2017 in Westminster.
