Mallya can be extradited to India after "confidential legal issue" is resolved in UK: MEA

India on Thursday said that fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya can be extradited to the country after the "confidential legal issue" is addressed in the United Kingdom (UK). Speaking at the weekly press briefing, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that no exact timeline has been indicated and India is going to "continue to take up this issue with UK authorities".

'No particular timeline has been indicated to us'

"We have been told that there's a confidential legal issue which needs addressing, following which Vijay Mallya can be extradited to India. No particular timeline has been indicated to us and we continue to take up this issue with UK authorities," he said. The United Kingdom on November 10 had said that Vijay Mallya cannot be extradited to India till the resolution of a confidential legal matter and that it is trying to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

"There is a further legal issue that needs resolving before we would be in a position to extradite Mallya. It is a legal case. So it is difficult for me to comment substantially on it," acting High Commissioner of the UK Jan Thompson said. In May, the fugitive businessman lost his appeals in the British Supreme Court against his extradition to India to face money laundering and fraud charges.

The UK top court's decision marked a major setback to the 64-year-old businessman as it came weeks after he lost his High Court appeal in April against an extradition order to India. 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.

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Mallya 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. 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.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court Monday asked the Centre to file a status report in six weeks on the proceedings pending in the United Kingdom for the extradition of Vijay Mallya to India.

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(With PTI inputs)