Vijay Mallya’s defense team faced criticism over the means by which they submitted the first tranche of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service, which is seeking Mr. Mallya’s extradition on behalf of Indian authorities. Speaking for the CPS, barrister Mark Summers expressed disappointment that the evidence had been submitted in physical rather than electronic form: in a box, which the CPS had had to devote resources to scanning. “We are disappointed to get a physical box with nothing electronically….it has cost us a week,” he told Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot, who also agreed that it was “slightly unfortunate in 2017,” that evidence was not submitted electronically as well. The defense team requested the CPS to share the electronic version of its own evidence with both it and the judge.
Mr. Summers said it was too early to gauge whether further time would be required as a result of this delay, potentially delaying the case further. A further hearing on the submission of evidence is due to take place on 20 November, with the main two-week trial due to commence on 4 December.
Since the last hearing in July, the prosecution, as requested by the judge, Indian authorities, via the CPS have submitted a 30 page summary “position statement” of the case against Mr. Mallya, and the defense have submitted four out of six expected reports. Defense barrister Ben Watson also provided details of individuals who had or would be providing testimony on behalf of Mr. Mallya including an airline expert, a banking expert, a legal expert, and an Indian lawyer.
It also emerged that India had submitted detailed evidence, electronically, including with pictures of the prison that Mr. Mallya would potentially be held in, to satisfy the routine request in extradition requests in Britain to clarify prison conditions in the country requesting the extradition. “There is a very detailed assurance with photographs,” said Mr. Summers, “We anticipated it would be an issue,” he told the judge who nodded her approval of the anticipatory development.
Thursday’s hearing was the first one not attended by Mr. Mallya in person, even though there was no requirement for him to attend the most recent hearings until December. A female family member attended. Mr. Mallya remains on bail till the December 4 hearing.
