Kingfisher Airlines former owner and liquor baron Vijay Mallya was arrested in London for the second time in a money laundering case on Tuesday, according to NDTV report.
The fugitive businessman was produced in the Westminster Court on Tuesday and has already got his bail for the second consecutive time. Mallya was released on bail in another case for which he was arrested in April 2017 on an extradition request by the Indian government.The tycoon, who has been staying in London for over a year, was accused of defaulting loans worth thousands of crores of rupees in India.
A case has been registered against him in India for not returning Rs 9,000 crore which he had taken from the IDBI bank, reported NEWS 18. An extradition request was sent in February to Britain requesting the businessman to face trial after he left India on March 2, 2016.
Mallya faces nearly half a dozen warrants in India and has been accused of repeatedly refusing to appear before courts and investigators. He was often seen at public events in London, UK.
The British authorities had also initiated the probe against him. The Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had reportedly launched an investigation against the liquor baron for alleged money laundering in the UK and other countries.
The probe was initiated after it was alleged that Mallya used various firms for laundering money from India to the UK through a complex web of companies, Times of India reported. The UK investigators also suspect that he was also involved in laundering money to Switzerland and other countries.
Mallya had earlier, dismissed all the charges levelled against him. "There might be a few more hearings in this case in the coming months to deal with case management or any issues that arise, before the final hearing takes place, at which the full arguments from both sides, in this case, will be heard by the District Judge," explained Jasvinder Nakhwal, partner at Peters and Peters Solicitors LLP and member of the UK's Extradition Lawyers Association.
Several cases registered against him are being investigated by the Indian agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate which handles the financial crimes.
(More details awaited)
