Vijay Mallya extradition: India slams UK for raising concerns over state of Indian jails

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday, responding to a query on the extradition of liquor baron Vijay Mallya — who has fled to London after a fraud and money laundering case in India, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told his UK counterpart that Indian jails for the liquor baron will be same as those that housed Indian national leaders Mahatma Gandhi and JL Nehru.

Reports have said that Theresa May, citing a UK court, had questioned PM Modi about the condition of Indian jails. “PM Modi told British PM Theresa May that UK courts asking about the condition of Indian jails is not right, as these are the same prisons where they had jailed our leaders like Gandhi and Nehru,” Swaraj told the media during the fourth annual press briefing on the achievements of the Ministry of External Affairs.

Mallya is wanted in India in a money laundering and an alleged bank fraud cases. He is accused of fraudulently palming off losses from his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines onto banks by taking out loans worth Rs 9,000 crore. He was arrested twice last year in London and released on bail.


The government is now wading through a long process of extraditing him. A final judgement may come within weeks.

The Crown Prosecution service in London is representing the Indian government in court. India has submitted a 2,000-page dossier in court as part of evidence against Vijay Mallya.

One of the arguments that the 61-year-old flamboyant businessman has put forward in the UK hearings is the poor condition of prisons in India.