Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya wins right to challenge extradition from Britain on fraud charges

Mallya was once known as the ‘King of Good Times’ but dropped off India’s most wealthy list in 2014, engulfed by Kingfisher Airlines’ massive debts

He left India in 2016, owing more than US$1 billion after defaulting on loan payments to a state-owned bank and allegedly misusing the funds

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Indian businessman Vijay Mallya. Photo: AP

Published: 10:58am, 3 Jul 2019Updated: 8:22pm, 3 Jul 2019

Beer tycoon Vijay Mallya on Tuesday won the right to challenge in court Britain’s decision to order his extradition to India to face fraud charges.

A two-judge panel at the High Court in London ruled the appeal by the 63-year-old owner of Kingfisher beer, who also heads the Force India Formula One racing team, should proceed to a full hearing.

Mallya is one of the most high-profile of several extradition cases between Britain and India.

He faces being returned to India to stand trial after British Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed an order for his extradition in February.

That followed a December court decision against Mallya, who left India in 2016 owing more than US$1 billion after defaulting on loan payments to a state-owned bank and allegedly misusing the funds.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot ruled then that he had misrepresented how loans received from banks would be used and therefore had a case to answer there.

She said bankers had been “charmed” by a “glamorous, flashy, famous, bejewelled, bodyguarded, ostensibly billionaire playboy” into losing their common sense.