London: UK high court extradition appeal of Vijay Maliya to be heard on February 2020. Appeal of Vijay Maliya, embattled liquor tycoon appeal in the UK high court against his extradition order has been listed for three days hearing starting from February 11, 2020, said UK court on Thursday.
When a two-judge panel at Royal Courts of Justice in London granted Vijay, 63-years old former Kingfisher Airlines boss permission to appeal against the extradition order of a lower court to face fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an alleged Rs. 9000 crores in India had won a reprieve earlier this month.
The UK high court officially says,” The appeal hearing has been listed on 11th February 2020 with a time estimate of three days.”
On some aspects of the prima facie case presented by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), at hearing on July 2, Justices George Leggatt and Andrew Popplewell concluded: “arguments can be reasonably made”.
The ruling on basis of that material by chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot in her extradition order of December 2018, that was signed off by UK Sajid Javid earlier this year, is therefore now set for a full appeal hearing in the higher court.
Judge Leggate noted,” By far the most substantial ground is that the senior District Judge was wrong to conclude that the government had established a prima facie case.”
The basis on which judge Arbuthnot had arrived at certain conclusions, Clare Montgomery, Mallya’s counsel had contested.
He declined the acceptance of the India authorities’ assertions that Mallya had wrong intentions of making misrepresentations to banks to get loans and had no intention to pay back.
Accepting the board arguments, the high court judge directed her to submit a draft for the appeal of full hearing which has been set on February next year.
Mallya felt vindicated and admitted to paying back the money owed to the Indian Banks.
“I still want the banks to take all their money, do they have to do and leave me in peace.”, he added
He repeatedly said the same statement through social media, “ask your Banks why they are not taking 100% of the money I have been offering.”
Judge Arbuthnot had found clear evidence of dispersal and misapplication of loan funds at the end of the year extradition at West minister Magistrates’ court last December.
Any bars to extradition on the grounds of the prison conditions under which the businessman would be held had been dismissed by the court. The judge accepted the Indian Government’s assurance that he would receive all necessary medical care at Barrack at 12 in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail.
The high court panel had concurred with most of the other findings of the lower court, including satisfactory prison condition in India.
UK high court extradition appeal of Vijay Maliya to be heard in February 2020
