UK delegations face Indian pressure on extradition of Vijay, Nirav Modi

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought up the issue of the extradition of fugitives Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi in every India-UK trade-related meeting, according to sources. Time and again, the delegations from the UK that have come to India have faced Indian pressure to extradite Mallya and Nirav Modi, the sources revealed.

In a recent interview with private English news channel Times Now, senior advocate Harish Salve said that the British always complain that as soon as there is a meeting the first question that PM Modi would ask is the progress of the extradition proceedings of Mallya and Nirav Modi. "PM Modi has strongly told the UK government that you can’t be a trade partner and a home for fugitives at the same time," Salve said.

Vijay Mallya, chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, was ordered to be extradited by the British judiciary in 2019 and is yet to be sent to India. Similarly, diamantaire Nirav Modi has been held in custody at south London's Wandsworth prison since he was arrested in 2019. India and the UK had signed an extradition treaty in 1992.

This was ratified the following year and has been in force since. Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's plea to move the UK Supreme Court against his extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering was denied in December last year. Nirav Modi lost the bid to take his fight against extradition to India on charges of fraud and money laundering to the UK's Supreme Court. Nirav Modi, a prime accused in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, had fled India.

He lost his appeal after he moved the High Court in London against his extradition on mental health grounds. Earlier this March, without mentioning the names of fugitive economic offenders, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had said that the British Judicial system is independent of the government and it is them to decide.

Cleverly told ANI, "The legal process in the UK, just as it is in India, is independent of the government. We always want to see the machinery of the justice system working promptly but those are the decisions of the British Judicial system."