Vijay Mallya loses extradition case, UK Minister Priti Patel to take the call

London : Business tycoon Vijay Mallya on Monday lost his High Court appeal against the 2018 decision to extradite him and face fraud charges resulting from the collapse of his defunct company Kingfisher Airlines. The case has now gone to UK Minister Priti Patel who will be taking the final decision.

With the High Court's dismissal to his appeal, the way to Vijay Mallya's extradition is almost clear. He now has only option to apply for permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court within 14 days.

If he does apply, the UK Home Office would wait for the outcome of that appeal. But if he does not, under the India-UK Extradition Treaty, it would then be expected to formally certify the court order for Mallya to be extradited to India within 28 days.

Vijay Mallya is wanted in India over Rs 9,000 crore in loans Kingfisher took out from banks which the authorities argue he had no intention of repaying. The Kingfisher owner denies the charges and is currently out on bail.

His lawyer, Clare Montgomery, in a hearing in February said that the 2018 extradition ruling by Judge Emma Arbuthnot had "multiple errors" because she did not take into account all the evidence about the financial status of Kingfisher Airlines.

"We have held there is a prima facie case both of misrepresentation and of conspiracy, and thus there is also a prima facie case of money laundering," the High Court concluded," the judges ruled.