PM seeks UK's help in return of Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday sought British PM Theresa May's help to ensure UK's cooperation to bring back economic offenders including fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya and former IPL chief Lalit Modi. Mallya is wanted for default on loans worth nearly ?9,000 crore while Lalit Modi is wanted for a money laundering probe.
(Eds: Updating with more quotes) By Barun Jha Hamburg, Jul 8 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today pressed upon his British counterpart Theresa May to ensure UKs cooperation to bring back economic offenders, amidst India working hard for the return of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya and former IPL chief Lalit Modi. Mallya has been in the UK for months, escaping arrest warrants against him, while a court in London is also hearing a case regarding his return to India. Modi today met May during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit here and sought UKs help in this regard. Both leaders also talked about the complete range of India-UK ties. In a tweet after the meeting, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay said the Prime Minister asked for UKs "cooperation for return of escaped Indian economic offenders". On economic offenders issue, Baglay said, "you have seen our tweet". On whether cooperation from the UK was sought with just Mallya in mind, he said, "The tweet mentions economic offenders who have escaped from India and that is the answer". To a query on whether was Mallya in focus in terms of escaped economic offenders discussed with May, Baglay said, "We have put out a tweet and the term used there is a plural... its English language and people who know English should understand it". Asked whether all on the list were discussed and no specific names were mentioned, he said, "I wont like to go into that and what we have said in the tweet is what our position is". Baglay refused to comment directly on any question related to Mallya. Mallya, who is wanted in India for Kingfisher Airlines default on loans worth nearly Rs 9,000 crore, has been in the UK since March 2016. In April, he had attended a central London police station for his arrest and was released on conditional bail a few hours later after providing a bail bond worth 650,000 pounds, assuring the court of abiding by all conditions associated with extradition proceedings, such as surrender of his passport and a ban on him possessing any travel documents. Lalit Modi, former chief of Indian Premier League (IPL), is wanted by the Indian authorities with respect to a money laundering probe and he is said to be in the UK. The former cricket administrator has maintained that he has not done any wrong in any of the IPL deals. 