A key defence to disprove a prima facie case of fraud and misrepresentation on Mallya's part has revolved around the fact that Kingfisher Airlines was the victim of economic misfortune alongside other Indian airlines.
Mallya's barrister, Clare Montgomery, reiterated the central defence that there had been no misrepresentation or fraud on the part of her client and that Kingfisher Airlines was the victim of economic misfortune alongside other airlines.
The 63-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss, an avid cricket fan, is wanted in India on fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an alleged Rs 9,000 crores.
The five-day extradition trial of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi will begin from May 11 in a part-remote setting, a UK court has ordered. Modi is fighting his extradition to India over the nearly USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case.
Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who lost his UK high court appeal against an extradition order to India, has said that he is "disappointed" with the ruling but will continue to seek legal remedies as advised by his legal team. The 64-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss reiterated that he has repeatedly offered to pay the Indian banks the loan amount owed by his now-defunct airline, an offer which the banks have rejected.
Friday's hearing is expected to be presided over by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot, the same judge who had ordered the extradition of former Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya last December.
Modi appeared for his regular 28-day "call-over" appearance from London's Wandsworth prison at Westminster magistrates' court, where judge Gareth Branston reconfirmed that his extradition trial will begin on May 11 next year and will last five days.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday rejected alleged bookie Sanjeev Chawla's application for an interim measure on human rights grounds to block his extradition from the UK to face match-fixing charges in India. The legal paperwork process for his extradition will now go ahead through the UK Central Authority, for Scotland Yard officers to hand Chawla over to their counterparts from Delhi Police to be flown back to Indian within days.
The charges against the diamond merchant centre around his firms Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds making fraudulent use of a credit facility offered by the Punjab National Bank, known as 'letters of undertaking'.
Embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya claimed on Sunday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement in a recent interview confirming the recovery of Rs 14,000 crore worth of his assets has fully vindicated him in his assertion of being a "poster boy" for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.
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.
Besides the passports, Modi also possesses multiple residency cards, some of them expired, but covering countries/regions such as the UAE, Singapore and Hong Kong.
India on April 28 asked the UK authorities to deport Mallya.
In her judgment handed down at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Justice Ingrid Simler concluded there were "substantial grounds" to believe that Modi would fail to surrender as he does possess the means to "abscond".
The leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is on a point of law of general public importance, which according to experts is a very high threshold that is not often met.
The 61-year-old flamboyant businessman, already out on bail on an extradition warrant executed by the Metropolitan Police earlier this year, was released on the same bail conditions as before to appear for his trial on December 4.
Embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya on Monday lost his high court appeal against his extradition order to India in relation to charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to an alleged Rs 9,000 crores.
Three members of a Sikh gang, including a woman, were today convicted of slashing the throat of Lt Gen (retd) Kuldip Singh Brar, the hero of the 1984 Operation Blue Star, in London last year.
Former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns expects to be charged with perjury this month by British authorities and will travel to Britain to defend himself, the player said on Friday.
He has been lodged at Wandsworth prison in south-west London since his arrest in March in connection with the nearly $2 billion Punjab National Bank fraud and money laundering case.
Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London concluded that she remains unconvinced that he would not interfere with witnesses or fail to surrender before the court for his trial in May 2020.
He is set to be produced from custody before Judge Emma Arbuthnot for the first management hearing in the case, during which a broad timeline is expected for his extradition trial.
Judge Andrew Henshaw refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya's assets and upheld an Indian court's ruling that a consortium of 13 Indian banks were entitled to recover funds amounting to nearly $1.55 billion.
His legal team, led by solicitor Anand Doobay, have previously offered one million pounds as security alongside an offer to meet stringent electronic tag restrictions on their client's movements, "akin to house arrest".
During the course of the hearing last month, it emerged that Modi had made death threats to witnesses and also attempted to destroy evidence such as mobile phones and a server holding "material critical to the fraud".
The trial, which opened at the London court on December 4, is aimed at laying out a prima facie case of fraud against the 61-year-old embattled businessman, who has been based in the UK since March 2016.
"He is expected to be produced before the court for a second bail application hearing on March 29," a court official in London confirmed on Tuesday.
Mallya said, the ED on the one side and the banks on the other are fighting over the same assets.
Jabir Moti, 51, who was arrested by Scotland Yard last year, appeared before the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London at the start of his trial.
The next phase is when factors such as prison conditions in India are likely to take centre-stage.
Mallya, who has been out on bail since Scotland Yard executed an extradition warrant in April this year, will be in the dock for the duration of the trial -- scheduled to end on December 14.
Britain has ordered a scoping review into the police handling of hate crimes after a sharp rise.
Mallya is separately fighting extradition to India on fraud and money laundering charges worth an estimated Rs 9,000 crore
Wanted diamond merchant Nirav Modi on Thursday lost his fight against being extradited to India as a United Kingdom judge ruled that he can be sent back to face charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated $2 billion Punjab National Bank scam case.
The diamond merchant, who has been behind bars at HMP Wandsworth in south-west London ever since his first bail application was rejected on March 20, can apply for a high court bail appeal at any time until his next remand hearing on April 26.
Clare Montgomery, Modi's barrister, made a series of offers to try and convince the judge to grant bail.
All the three, aged between 25 and 33 are believed to be of Pakistani origin
The next hearing to assess the progress in the case will be held at Westminster Magistrates' Court on September 14.
The process, to be heard in the Royal Courts of Justice in London, could take months as the listing of a hearing will depend on the availability of judges and other factors.
The British home secretary has granted permission for jeweller Nirav Modi's extradition to India. During their arguments in a London court, his lawyers claimed Modi suffers from mental illness and is a suicide risk if he was sent to Mumbai's Arthur Road jail. A fascinating excerpt from Danish Khan and Ruhi Khan's Escaped: True Stories Of Indian Fugitives In London.
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