A UK court today ordered the extradition of fugitive Vijay Mallya, wanted in India for alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crore. The businessman left India in 2016 as a group of banks started legal proceedings to recover the loans.
Here is the timeline of the Vijay Mallya case:
May 9, 2005: United Breweries Holdings Limited (UBHL) Chairman Vijay Mallya's luxury airline -- Kingfisher Airlines -- started commercial operations.
2013: A consortium of Indian banks led by State Bank of India approached United Breweries Holdings Ltd for the payback of a loan amounting to Rs 6,493 crore on behalf of Kingfisher Airlines.
March 3, 2016: Vijay Mallya fled from India and took refuge in London.
February, 2017: India sent extradition request to UK.
April 18, 2017: Scotland Yard arrested Vijay Mallya on an extradition warrant after he surrendered at a central London police station. He was released on bail within hours after providing a bail bond worth 650,000 pounds.
June 13, 2017: The first case management hearing took place at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London in the extradition case. Mr Mallya's bail was extended until December 2017, for the start of the extradition trial.
July 6, 2017: Vijay Mallya appeared for a hearing in the case despite an exemption from appearance in court.
September 14, 2017: Another case management hearing in the case when Mr Mallya's defence team informed the court of plans to depose six experts they intended to rely upon in their evidence.
October 3, 2017: Vijay Mallya is re-arrested in a money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and is released on the same bail conditions, as the CBI and ED cases were clubbed together for the purposes of the extradition trial.
Novembver 20, 2017: A pre-trial hearing in the case took note of additional "supplemental" charges of money laundering to the previous charges of fraud, amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crore.
December 4, 2017: Vijay Mallya's extradition trial started.
December 5, 2017: Vijay Mallya's defence team laid out its counter-arguments, claiming there was no evidence to support the "nonsensical" case of fraud against their client.
December 7, 2017: The hearing resumed with Vijay Mallya's defence claiming his offer to pay back nearly 80 per cent of the principle loan amount owed to the Indian banks, led by State Bank of India, had been rejected.
December 11, 2017: Vijay Mallya's defence continued to depose off its experts and tried to establish that the case against him was "politically motivated".
December 12, 2017: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) took Mr Mallya's defence team's political expert to task, claiming that he had relied on flawed material to discredit Indian investigation agencies like the CBI and ED in his testimony.
December 13, 2017: Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, where Mr Mallya is to be held on extradition, came into focus as the defence sought to discredit its suitability through the witness statements of UK-based prison service expert Dr Alan Mitchell and the CPS dismissed his claims.
December 14, 2017: Both sides concluded the evidence stage of the trial, with the case moving into 2018 to complete all procedures.
January 11, 2018: The hearing returned for the judge to hear arguments for and against the admissibility of certain evidence in the case.
March 16, 2018: The judge noted that it is "blindingly obvious" to her that rules were being broken by Indian banks, which sanctioned some of the loans to the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines as the case returns for hearing.
April 27, 2018: The CBI got a boost as the judge confirmed that the bulk of the evidence submitted by the Indian authorities in the extradition case will be deemed admissible.
July 31, 2018: The court asked Indian authorities to submit a video of Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai to allay all doubts over its suitability.
September 12, 2018: At the final hearing in the case, Vijay Mallya told media outside the court that he met finance minister Arun Jaitley before he left India in March 2016. Arun Jaitley instantly issued a statement to dismiss the comments as "factually incorrect".
December 10, 2018: Westminster Magistrates' Court judge ordered the extradition of Vijay Mallya. The UK Home Secretary will have to sign Mr Mallya's extradition order within two months. However, his defence team has a chance to appeal in higher courts in the UK against the verdict.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said it welcomes the decision after UK court ordered extradition of Vijay Mallya to India. "We hope to bring him soon and conclude the case. CBI has its own inherent strengths. We worked hard on this case. We are strong on law and facts and we were confident while pursuing extradition process," the CBI spokesperson said today.
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