If extradited, fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya will be lodged in a high-security cell in Barrack number 12 at the infamous Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, the government has conveyed to the U.K. Crown Prosecution Services.
The government was responding to questions from the U.K. government on where Mr. Mallya would be held and the prison conditions he would be subjected to if India’s extradition request of February 2017 is granted.
In one of the communications, the government makes an obvious effort to convince the UK CPS that the narrative in Gregory David Roberts’ novel ‘Shantaram’ about Arthur Road Jail is “pure fiction” and not an autobiography. “It is a tale of imagination… None of these incidents have ever taken place at the Arthur Road Jail in the past four decades,” the government assures. It adds that Mr. Mallya would be held in “that part of Arthur Jail which is unique…”
The U.K. government’s advisory on Mr. Mallya’s prison conditions, in case he is extradited, contained a slew of questions, including whether the businessman would be “guaranteed a minimum three sq. m. of personal space”; would he be provided a clean mattress and even a query on whether there is adequate drinking water supply.
The correspondence is annexed to a status report filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Supreme Court. The hearing in the Mallya case is scheduled for July 14.
The U.K. government explains that its anxiety about prisons in India is sourced from the fact that “prison conditions is a very high-profile issue in extradition proceedings generally in the U.K. and throughout E.U. and requires early and careful planning”.
The report informs the court that CBI and ED officials had already met CPS prosecutors and answered all their queries.
“All evidence regarding falsities, misstatements and false representations of Vijay Mallya and officials of KAL were forwarded to the U.K…. U.K. authorities are satisfied with material supplied by the Indian agency,” it said.
The status report mentions that one of the UK prosecutors had in a hearing acknowledged the “excellent cooperation from Indian authorities” and submitted that India had “sufficient material to establish a prima facie case”. The report shared the time line of the extradition proceedings in the U.K. court, with the date for extradition hearing on December 4, 2017.
The government affidavit said that the extradition process is “already under progress in the UK courts” and it would inform the Supreme Court about the progress.
