Vijay Mallya gets bail within three hours of being arrested in London

London: Embattled Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya, who was arrested in London by Scotland Yard on Tuesday got bail within three hours of his arrest.

Mallya, who has been declared a proclaimed offender,  was arrested on India's request for his extradition on fraud charges.

 

Mallya, whose now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, had fled India on March 2, 2016.

In January, an Indian court ordered a consortium of lenders to start the process of recovering the loans.

Senior Indian officials described his arrest as the first salvo in the case, which will now involve a legal process in the UK to determine if Mallya can be extradited to India to face charges in Indian courts.

India had given a formal extradition request for Mallya as per the Extradition Treaty between India and the UK through a note verbale on February 8.

While handing over the request, India had asserted that it has a "legitimate" case against Mallya and maintained that if an extradition request is honoured, it would show British "sensitivity towards our concerns".

Last month, setting in motion the process of extradition of Mallya, the British government had certified India's request and sent it to a district judge for further action.

The extradition process from the UK involves a number of steps including a decision by the judge whether to issue a warrant of arrest.

In case of a warrant, the person is arrested and brought before the court for preliminary hearing followed by an extradition hearing before a final decision is taken by the secretary of state.

The wanted person has a right to appeal to the higher courts against any decision all the way up to the supreme court.

Earlier in January this year, a CBI court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Mallya in the Rs 720-crore IDBI Bank loan default case.