Hamburg: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today pressed upon his British counterpart Theresa May to ensure UK’s cooperation to bring back economic offenders, amidst India working hard for the return of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya and former IPL chief Lalit Modi. Vijay Mallya has been living in the UK for the past several months, arrest warrants against him continue. A hearing is going on in a London court in connection with sending them to India from Britain. There was a separate meeting with the UK Prime Minister during Modi’s G20 summit. The UK’s help was sought in matters of handing down fugitives to India in this meeting. The two leaders discussed the relations between India and Britain in different areas.
External Affairs Ministry spokesman Gopal Bagale said in the tweet after the meeting that the Prime Minister asked for Britain’s cooperation in returning the fledgeling Indian economic criminals. When asked if the request was only limited to Mallya’s case or Lalit Modi was also mentioned, Bagley’s reply was, “I do not want to be included in the statement but have participated in the terminology used in the tweet Economic criminals are mentioned and it is a plural. ‘
Mallya is looking for a case in India regarding the failure of the Kingfisher Airlines to not lend the Rs 9,000-crore loan. He is in the UK since March 2016. The extradition treaty between India and Britain which was signed in 1992. However, under this treaty, only one extradition has been established so far. Under the treaty, Sameer Bhai Veenubhai Patel was returned to India in October last year to prosecute him in the 2002 post-Godhra riots case in Gujarat.
