Vijay Mallya consults 'formidable' lawyer to defend him in extradition case
Beleaguered Indian businessman Vijay Mallya has consulted an award-winning lawyer, Claire Montgomery, the Queen’s Counsel, to fight the Indian government’s attempt to extradite him to India. Chambers & Partners, famous for ranking legal luminaries, described her as “the most formidable member of the bar”. Montgomery is likely to defend Mallya at forthcoming hearings in British courts. India, it was reliably learned from a high level source, will adopt a strategy of trying to convince the British judiciary that Mallya committed fraud, so as to get him back to India. This was finalised at discussions between officials of India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Director of the Finance Ministry and Britain's Crown Prosecution Service lawyers in London. In effect, what will be pursued is the CBI’s charge in India that Mallya, whose Kingfisher Airlines collapsed owing thousands of crores to various
Indian banks, colluded with officials of IDBI Bank to obtain a loan of Rs 900 crore. The facility was allegedly granted despite the company’s “weak financial position and low credit rating”. The extradition process between Britain and non-European Union countries, notwithstanding a 1993 treaty on the subject between the United Kingdom and India, is long and tortuous. No absconder wanted by India under this agreement has involuntarily ever been repatriated by a British court, including people allegedly involved in acts of murder and terrorism. Last year, Samirbhai Patel, said to be connected with the heinous 2002 Gujarat riots, returned of his own will. It is believed he did so thinking Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments at both Gujarat and the Centre may take a lenient view of his wrongdoing. This was indirectly an indictment of the present dispensation's human rights credentials. The British Home Office explained, a 2003 Act applies to non-EU territories with “international extradition arrangements” with Britain, such as India. Under this, the process began with the Indian High Commission in the UK requesting the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office to extradite Mallya. This was then forwarded to the Home Office, which approved the requisition. Following this, a judge issued a warrant of arrest against Mallya, who was produced in court on April 18 before being granted conditional bail. The next stage is a preliminary hearing on May 17. After this will take place, the actual extradition hearing sometime later in the year. Here, the judge, according to Home Office guidelines, “must be satisfied that the conduct amounts to an extradition offence (dual criminality), none of the bars to extradition apply, where applicable, there is prima facie evidence of guilt (in accusation cases), and whether extradition would breach the person's human rights”. Regardless of the ruling of the magistrates' court, either side can appeal to two levels at the High Court and finally to the Supreme Court.
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