Mumbai: Mallya is using the pathetic condition of Indian prisons as one of the grounds to contest his extradition to India from UK.
After Vijay Mallya, who has been declared a proclaimed offender, and is currently battling the Indian government’s extradition request, had raised the condition of Indian jails as one of the key challenging points, during a hearing in London’s Wesminster Court, the state machinery got into action.
Fearing that the liquor baron might capitalise on this heavily, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi wrote to State Chief Secretary Sumit Mullick on June 23, highlighting his apprehensions on the condition of jails in Maharashtra. In the event of Mallya’s extradition, he will most likely be lodged at Mumbai’s Arthur road jail.
Soon after the state received the letter, Mullick forwarded it to Additional Chief Secretary SK Shrivastava. Sources in the government said that Shrivastava directed for the letter to be immediately replied. The letter was then dispatched to Principal Secretary Shree Kant Singh and additional Director-General of police B K Upadhyaya.
“Mallya is citing many reasons to stall his extradition from UK to India. He is desperately wanted by the Enforcement Directorate, Mumbai, for several scams. If the union government gets him to Mumbai, then the agencies chasing him will get his custody and he will have to be kept in Arthur road jail since he is a high security prisoner. We don’t want the extradition to be stalled because of the condition in jails. Hence we have replied to the union government immediately,” said a senior officer of the state government.The official added that condition of the jails is quite good in Mumbai and basic human rights are never violated. “We have very high profile under trials in Mumbai like Peter Mukherjea and Chhagan Bhujbal. Another top builder is also lodged here.”
Vijay Bendre who recently retired as senior superintendent of jail said, “Till 2009-2010, Maharashtra had one of the best managed jails. Even now our prisons are good enough for such high profile prisoners.”
Mallya’s two-week extradition trial date has been fixed for December 4 after Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London heard that all the evidence in the case has finally been received from the government of India and reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Mallya is on conditional bail until then. His next case management hearing will take place on September 14. The defence must file a 30-page skeleton of its case by November 17 and the Indian government must respond by November 27.
Mallya fled to Hertfordshire in the UK in March 2016 after a consortium of 17 banks in India moved the Supreme Court to prevent him from leaving, accusing him of defaulting on loans worth more than Rs 9,000 crore given to his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines. He was arrested in London on an extradition warrant on April 18.
