Home Stretch

Indian sleuths and lawyer Mark Summers worked in tandem to get an extradition verdict on Vijay Mallya

- Namrata Biji Ahuja

WHY ARE YOU here so often?” Vijay Mallya would ask the two CBI officers whenever they crossed his path outside the Westminster Courts in London. “You bring us here,” one of them would retort.

This was 2017, and the CBI officers, special director Rakesh Asthana and investigating officer Suman Kumar, visited the UK at least 15 times since Mallya, who stands accused in a 9,000-crore bank fraud case, fled India in March 2016. The final hearing on the extradition plea on December 10 took the Indian team to London once again. This time, the team included CBI joint director A. Sai Manohar, Suman and Satyabrata Kumar, who heads the Mumbai zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate. The ED is probing the money laundering angle in the case.

Though the hearing began almost two hours late, it progressed fast, as Westminster Magistrate Court chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot took just around half an hour to order Mallya’s extradition to India. The 471-point judgment admitted the CBI evidence and trashed claims of “political pressure”. It was yet another victory for the CBI team, which had extradited UK national Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the 3,700-crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal, from the UAE a week before.

After the judgment, Mallya closeted himself with his legal team in the chambers for more than an hour. When he came out, the usually ebullient tycoon looked subdued. The handshakes had turned to mere salutes and distant waves, as his counsel in London, Clare Montgomery, had realised that he might be running out of time and options. The stylish and articulate Montgomery is a specialist in criminal, regulatory and fraud law.

Montgomery refused to comment on the verdict in a reply to an email request from THE WEEK. “I am afraid I am not permitted by my professional conduct rules to make any comment on this case, on or off the record,” she said.