Mallya, before heading to the UK court for the verdict, said the offer to make the 100 percent repayment on the debts has been taken, confirming that the money offered is is related to extradition.
The Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Monday ordered the extradition of fugitive billionaire Vijay Mallya to India, on charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore.
The 62-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss has been on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year.
According to reports, Mallya will be lodged in one of the high-security barracks located in a two-storey building inside the prison complex, which also housed 26/11 Mumbai attack terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, a prison official said.
In case of a medical emergency, Mallya can be treated at the dispensary located close to the barrack, where doctors and other staff are present to provide basic treatment to prisoners, a prisoner official had said.
The official said adequate medical facilities were available to treat prisoners in Arthur Road Jail, where Mallya would get full security cover as an undertrial prisoner and it was highly secured in accordance with international standards.
Mallya, before heading to the UK court for the verdict, said the offer to make the 100 percent repayment on the debts has been taken, confirming that the money offered is is related to extradition.
“I have offered to repay 100 per cent of the principal amount to them. Please take it,” the flamboyant businessman had tweeted earlier.
The 62-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss has been on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year.
“I did not borrow a single rupee. The borrower was Kingfisher Airlines. Money was lost due to a genuine and sad business failure. Being held as guarantor is not fraud,” he said in his recent Twitter post on the issue.
He has contested his extradition on the grounds that the case against him is “politically motivated” and the loans he has been accused of defrauding on were sought to keep his now-defunct airline afloat.
“I have tweeted that I want to repay to the banks and my employees included. This has nothing to do with the judgement,” Mallya said, adding that he wants to ‘change the narrative’ that he had stolen the money.
“My settlement offer is not related to the judgement due today.” he said, before entering the court.
Mallya’s defence team, led by Clare Montgomery, deposed a series of experts in an attempt to prove that the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines’ alleged default of bank loans was the result of business failure rather than “dishonest” and “fraudulent” activity by its owner.
The court was also told that a consortium of Indian banks, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), rejected an offer by the liquor baron in early 2016 to pay back nearly 80 per cent of the principal loan amount owed to them.
On the judgement, he said before entering the court, “Whatever the judgement is, we will see and we will follow it.,” adding that the assets have been attached by the authorities and they are not ‘bogus’.
The central government has already conducted an assessment of security cover given to prisoners in the Arthur Road Jail and its findings conveyed to the UK court.
