Vijay Mallya Arrested by Scotland Yard in London, Granted Bail

New Delhi: Liquor baron Vijay Mallya who is wanted in India for defaulting on loans worth Rs 9,000 crore has been arrested by the Scotland Yard in London. He was produced before the Westminster Magistrates' Court there and was granted bail.

The Westminster Magistrate told CNN-News18 that Mallya had been granted conditional bail pending deposit of £650,000 prior to his release from custody. The extradition hearing will be on May 17 at 2pm.

A press statement by London Metropolitan Police said: “Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Extradition Unit have this morning, Tuesday 18 April arrested a man on an extraction warrant. Vijay Mallya, 61 (18/12/1955), was arrested on behalf of the Indian authorities in relation to accusations of fraud. He was arrested after attending a central London police station, and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later today, 18 April."

Sources told CNBC TV18 that the process of Mallya’s arrest was put in motion after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s visit to London in February when he personally appealed to British PM Theresa May on the issue.

Soon after reports of the arrest, BJP MP Subramaniam Swamy congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Thanks and congratulations to PM Modi for this. Modi means business and he was always in a fight against corruption. It's time for Mallya to go to jail," Swamy told CNN-News18. “This is just the beginning…. Lalit Modi could be next."

He made Kingfisher beer a global brand and ran a now-defunct airline with the same name, besides being the owner of a cricket side and a Formula One team.

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

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.

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