The owner of the Sahara Force India Formula One team has been arrested in London after India made an extradition request.
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The owner of the Sahara Force India Formula One team has been arrested in London after India made an extradition request.
#VijayMallya gets bail within hours of arrest, extradition may take time: 10 points https://t.co/5p1jOv1Wqt pic.twitter.com/kOcMtT0M2B
— NDTV (@ndtv) April 18, 2017
After being bailed, Vijay Mallya tweeted: “Usual Indian media hype. Extradition hearing in court started today as expected.”
Mallya fled to Britain in March 2016 after being pursued in India’s courts by local banks seeking to recover around one point four billion dollars owed to them by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
He has a base in London as well as a country home bought from the father of triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Mallya attended just one of 21 races last year, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and watched the rest from a ‘control room’ in his country mansion.
India’s top brewer, United Breweries, part-owned by global giant Heineken, this year asked Mallya, its non-executive chairman, to step down from the board, following a regulatory order.
India’s capital markets regulator has also barred Mallya from participating in the securities market for having allegedly diverted funds from whisky maker United Spirits.
Mallya has repeatedly dismissed the charges against him and defended himself in messages from his personal account on social media.
An India-based spokesman for Mallya’s UB Group did not comment immediately.