UK complains PM Modi keeps pushing for Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi's early extradition: Salve

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has consistently raised the issue of extradition of fugitives Indian businessmen Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi who are residing in the United Kingdom during every trade-related meeting with the country, revealed senior advocate and King's Counsel Harish Salve. He stated that the British regime is facing the ire of the Indian government which has been pressuring it to expedite the process of their extradition to face the law here.

During a recent interview, advocate Salve informed that the British government always complains that the moment there is a meeting with Prime Minister Modi, his first question is, "Where are Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi?" PM Modi has strongly asserted that the UK government can’t be a trade partner and a home for fugitives from India simultaneously. 

According to Salve, the Indian government is actively seeking the extradition of both the fraudsters. India and the UK had in 1992 signed an extradition treaty. This was ratified a year later in 1993.

Indian fugitives in UK

Vijay Mallya, a fugitive Indian businessman and chairman of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, has been residing in the United Kingdom ever since he fled India in March 2016 following allegations of wilful default and bank fraud. He was ordered to be extradited by the UK judiciary in 2019 but is yet to be sent to India. Mallya is accused in a bank loan default matter of over Rs 9,000 crore involving Kingfisher Airlines.

The apex court had in 2020 dismissed Mallya’s plea seeking review of the May 2017 verdict which had held him guilty of contempt for transferring USD 40 million to his children in violation of court orders. He is on bail on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

Similarly, fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, a key accused in the Rs 13,000-crore scam at state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), was declared a fugitive economic offender in December 2019. The 52-year-old is currently lodged at South London's Wandsworth prison following his arrest in 2019. He moved a plea in the UK's Supreme Court on mental health grounds against his extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering which was denied in December 2022.