Vijay Mallya was accused of cheating, conspiracy in IDBI loan default case and named an absconder.
The process to extradite business tycoon
Vijay Mallya - who is living in the United Kingdom -- started today with the Central Bureau of Investigation filing an affidavit in court saying he is a wanted criminal. The move came days after the agency filed a chargesheet against the liquor baron in the Rs 900 crore IDBI loans case. The affidavit will be submitted to the foreign ministry, which will then approach its UK counterparts for the extradition.
Mr Mallya has been charged with cheating and conspiracy for defaulting on a 900 crore taken from the IDBI bank in 2009. The CBI said Rs. 250 crore of the IDBI loan, meant to buy aircraft parts for his Kingfisher Airlines, was diverted outside the country. The 1000-page chargesheet, filed in a Mumbai court on January 24, also said Mr Mallya is an absconder.
After the chargesheet was filed, Mr Mallya tweeted that there was a witch-hunt against him and that he never misused the money.
Wanted in a series of loan default cases, Mr Mallya has been living in the UK since April - he has called it a "forced exile". Although there is a non-bailable arrest warrant against him and his passport has been revoked, he has not appeared in front of the investigative agencies that are probing the loan default cases against him.
Mr Mallya went to Britain in March last year, as a consortium of banks were trying a recover nearly Rs 9,000 crore given as loans to Kingfisher Airlines, which had stopped flying in 2012.