Absconding businessman and liquor baron Vijay Mallya was on Tuesday arrested in London but was soon after let off on bail. Tweeting on the entire procedure, Mallya called it a usual Indian media hype. “Usual Indian media hype. Extradition hearing in Court started today as expected,” he tweeted.
The Scotland Yard had earlier arrested Mallya on behalf of the Indian authorities in relation to accusations of fraud. “Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Extradition Unit have this morning, Tuesday 18 April arrested a man on an extraction warrant. He was arrested after attending a central London police station, and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court later today, 18 April,” read the official statement of the Scotland Yard.
This comes after a Delhi court had issued an open-ended non-bailable warrant against Mallya in connection with the the 1995 FERA violation case.
Usual Indian media hype. Extradition hearing in Court started today as expected.
— Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) April 18, 2017
The Metropolitan Police said Mallya was arrested after attending a central London police station. He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London and was seen walking out with his legal team a few hours later after being granted bail.
“It was a voluntary action. He will be out in a few minutes,” said a member of Mallya’s team at the court, without giving any further details of the bail conditions.
In January, an Indian court ordered a consortium of lenders to start the process of recovering the loans. Senior Indian officials described his arrest as the first salvo in the case, which will now involve a legal process in the UK to determine if Mallya can be extradited to India to face charges in Indian courts.
