The decision on whether fugitive tycoon Vijay Mallya will be extradited from the UK to India to face fraud charges or not, will be made by the Britsh court on December 10, said England’s Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot on Wednesday.
As per the prosecution, Mallya had no intention of honouring the guarantees he had given while taking loans for his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, reports NDTV. But, the judge was of the opinion that for her what matters is the prima facie based on which the court would decide the judgement.
Speaking to the reporters outside the court, Mallya said, “The prosecution has argued their case. It’s now for judges to decide.” He also stated the reason why he left the country. He said, as the news website quotes, “I left because I had a scheduled meeting in Geneva.”
Adding on he also claimed that he met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Mallya said, “I met the finance minister before I left, repeated my offer to settle with the banks… that’s the truth.” However, he refused to divulge the details of the meeting. Mallya stated that he made a “very comprehensive offer” before the Karnataka High Court, “so that everybody gets paid”.
On the other hand, the Union Minister, in his Facebook post said, “Since 2014, I have never given him (Vijay Mallya) any appointment to meet me and the question of his having met me does not arise”. Jaitley noted that he met Mallya in the Parliament corridor and had reminded him of how he “misused his privilege as a Rajya Sabha Member”.
Jaitley wrote, “I am making an offer of settlement”. “Having been fully briefed about his earlier “bluff offers”, without allowing him to proceed with the conversation, I curtly told him “there was no point talking to me and he must make offers to his bankers.”
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