The CBI documents regarding extradition of liquor baron Vijay Mallya reached the British High Commission in Delhi only last week, The Hindu has learnt.
By then, it was too late for the High Commission to send the documents to London, where the British Foreign Office and Home Office would forward them to the Crown Prosecution Service (which represents the Indian side in the Magistrate’s court). a senior government official said on Wednesday.
The delay in sending the documents to the British authorities has set off a blame game within the government, which has placed high priority on Mr. Mallya’s extradition, wanted here for a number of cases including bank loan defaults of ₹9,000 crore.
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Despite the request of Mr. Mallya’s counsel to push the court proceedings till February or March next year to enable enough time for all the evidence to be gathered, Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot settled on an earlier date in December.
The CBI did not comment. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Additional Director Rakesh Asthana is supervising Mr. Mallya’s case.
“We acted as a post office and passed on information we got from the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to the External Affairs Ministry. We are trying to find out if there was a delay or not,” said a senior Home Ministry official.
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Another source in the government rejected the suggestion that the Indian government had not been “prompt” in its responses, and giving evidence against Mr. Mallya in the extradition case.
“Papers were given to the British High Commission in Delhi last week,” at least two sources confirmed.
“The extradition case against Mr. Mallya is being heard in a London court based on the CBI case. We had a strong case and he was arrested in April this year. We registered the case based on source information as no bank was ready to give a complaint against him. Only after he fled last year, that the State Bank of India gave a formal complaint,” said a CBI official.
Another Home Ministry official said that the “media trial” of Mr. Mallya could adversely affect the case in the London court.