By: JurmoloyaRava
TYCOON’S DEFENCE ARGUES POLITICAL BIAS AT INDIA EXTRADITION HEARING IN THE UK
THE Indian government’s fraud case against tycoon Vijay Mallya is baseless and politically motivated, his defence lawyer told a London court on Tuesday (12), as she battled to prevent his extradition to his home country.
Mallya, who lives in Britain, stands accused in India of fraudulently palming off losses from his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines onto banks by taking out loans he had no intention of repaying.
His defence team argue that he is being used as a scapegoat by Indian politicians of all stripes to deflect public anger at the accumulation of bad debts by state-owned banks.
The 61-year-old, nicknamed “the King of Good Times” after the slogan on bottles of one of his premium beers and his partying lifestyle, had business interests ranging from aviation to liquor.
He is also the co-owner of Formula One motor racing team Force India.
The case against him centres on a series of loans Kingfisher obtained from Indian banks, especially state-owned lender IDBI. The banks want to recover a total of about $1.4 billion (£1bn) that the state says the defunct airline owes.
Mallya’s British defence lawyer, Clare Montgomery, told Westminster magistrates court that India had made a series of serious allegations against her client and others that did not have “a shred of evidence” to back them up.
She also said the Indian government’s case revealed a “shocking” lack of appreciation of how companies function and of basic realities such as the effects of incorporation and the rights of shareholders.
“Economically and legally, it is impossible to palm off losses onto banks by borrowing to pass on the cost of failure,” she said.
Montgomery said she would call witnesses later in the two-week hearing to give evidence on what she called the “political ramifications” of the case.
She accused several Indian parties, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of “making political capital from the Mallya case on the assumption there was a fraud”.
Montgomery said India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is prosecuting the case, had a “long and inglorious history of being politically motivated in the cases it brings”.
[TheChamp-Sharing]
