India asks Britain to deport Vijay Mallya

India has asked the UK to deport Vijay Mallya, whose Kingfisher Airlines has been accused of defaulting bank loans of over Rs 9,400 crore, citing the revocation of his passport and a non-bailable warrant against him.

External Affairs Ministry also emphasised that India will continue pursuing Mallya's deportation matter with the UK authorities.

Four days after MEA revoked the liquor baron's passport, ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, "The ministry has written to the High Commission of the UK in Delhi requesting the deportation of Vijay Mallya so that his presence can be secured for investigations against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002."

He further said that Indian High Commission in the UK will also be issuing a similar note verbale to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

"Mallya's passport was revoked last week in view of these (PMLA) investigations and non-bailable warrant issued by the Special Judge, Mumbai. We will continue to pursue this matter with UK authorities," Swarup added.

ED has approached the MEA seeking initiation of deportation proceedings against Mallya, charged with money laundering in the Rs 900 crore IDBI loan fraud case.

Mallya, who had left India on March 2 for the UK, can approach the British authorities to grant him permission to continue his stay in that country or challenge the revocation of his passport.

Earlier in the week, Mallya, who has been evading several requests from investigating agencies and courts to appear for questioning, was asked by Supreme Court to submit details of all his assets including those of his family members. The details will be shared with the consortium of banks to which Mallya’s now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes Rs 9,000 crore.

The banks, most of them state-owned, had approached India’s apex court in February this year to stop Mallya from leaving the country, but by then the embattled businessman, once known as the ‘King of Good Times’, had flown out of the country. Later, Mallya had taken to social networking platform Twitter to say that he was not an absconder.

Mallya had offered to pay Rs 4,000 crore to the lenders by September. He had also agreed to pay an additional Rs 2,000 crore to banks if the defunct Kingfisher airline wins a lawsuit seeking damages from a plane engine-maker Aero Engines. Kingfisher Airlines, after making losses for nine years, closed down in 2012.