Is Mallya seeking asylum in UK?
INDIAN businessman Vijay Mallya, who is due to be extradited to India, has applied through “another route” to enable him to remain in the UK, the tycoon’s barrister representing him in bankruptcy proceedings in the high court confirmed in court for the first time.
A legal challenge by Mallya, 65, to the Indian government’s extradition request was turned down at the Supreme Court in the UK last year. He is on bail until home secretary Priti Patel signs off on the order for him to be extradited to India.
Mallya faces charges of fraud and money laundering related to the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. He denies wrongdoing.
“The extradition was upheld but he [Mallya] is still here because, as you know, there is another route for him to apply to the Secretary of State [Patel] for status,” said barrister Philip Marshall. He responded to a query by deputy insolvency and companies court Judge Nigel Barnett on the status of the extradition proceedings during a remote hearing last Friday (22).
The Home Office has confirmed that a confidential legal process remains ongoing before the extradition request, signed by the home secretary on February 3, 2019, can be certified and executed.
This raised speculation that Mallya sought asylum in the UK, details of which are neither confirmed nor denied by the Home Office in Britain while an application is pending.
It is likely the reference by Mallya’s barrister is to an asylum route which, according to legal experts, would depend upon whether Mallya applied for asylum prior to the extradition request or after.
The court last Friday also heard how Mallya, who submitted written evidence for the hearing, was in a “constrained” position as a close relative had passed away as a result of Covid-19. The remote hearing in the commercial division of the high court in London was to establish whether the court can sanction substantial sums towards Mallya’s living expenses and legal fees from the sale of a French luxury property Le Grand Jardin last year.
The money is held in the UK’s Court Funds Office (CFO) as part of bankruptcy proceedings brought by a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India.