Prosecutor calls Mallya’s conspiracy theory a ‘grandiose narrative’

The prosecutor told a London court that it should reject the “grandiose narrative” that Vijay Mallya is the victim of an Indian government conspiracy.

He urged it to extradite the former head of both United Spirits and United Breweries and founder of the failed Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) on fraud and money laundering charges.

Mallya has already been found in contempt of India’s Supreme Court for failing to disclose his full assets following his flight to the UK in March 2016.

Mark Summers, on behalf of the Indian authorities, said that Mallya must return to his home country to face trial for allegedly defaulting on a series of loans from India’s state-owned IDBI bank for his failing airline that were obtained under false pretences.

“The court is invited to disregard the defendant’s grandiose narrative,” Summers said on the opening day of the expected two-week extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court.

“Pruned of rhetoric and hyperbole, there is, despite the obviously high-profile nature of this case in India, nothing strange or remarkable about the government’s intention to prosecute.”

“The [Indian] government says there are reasons why a court could conclude that this was a loan the defendant never intended to repay,” said Summers. “His company [KFA] was in intensive care, the market was in intensive care, it was only heading in one direction, as it went down it was going to sustain huge losses and the defendant had a choice: either take those losses yourself and impinge on your own lifestyle or you try and palm them off onto a bank.

“The optimistic picture presented by Kingfisher in its loan application contrasted with the very gloomy picture presented by internal communications, including one email, which predated the loan application that predicted it would take 10 years to recoup losses.

“It’s against that that you have to assess the financial obligations given to the bank, on which the bank relies heavily.”

Mallya, who is free on £650,000 bail, was arrested in London in April after a consortium of 17 banks accused him of wilfully defaulting on more than 91 billion rupees (£1.1 billion) of debt accumulated by Kingfisher Airlines – which he founded in 2005.

Mallya, 61, told reporters when the court was evacuated after a fire alarm was activated, that “the allegations are baseless, unfounded.”

“At the heart of this request lies a flawed criminal case,” Mallya’s lawyers said in court documents. The allegations are driven “by politicians of every stripe, all of whom stand only to gain from the demonisation of KFA’s former senior executives, the bankers who lent to it, and — crucially — the man who is now presented as the embodiment of all the ills of capitalism in contemporary India, Dr. Mallya.”

Mallya claims he will not be given a fair trial in India and that the investigations into his activities have been biased. He is also claiming that prison conditions in India violate human rights.

Separately Diageo is suing Mallya recover a $40 million payment made when he severed links with United Spirits after Diageo had purchased a controlling stake. Through United Spirits it also seeking about $141 million over questionable payments made to companies affiliated with Mallya.