UK home office approves Vijay Mallya's extradition to India

UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid has approved Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya's extradition to India, reports said on Monday (4).

The move comes after a UK court in December ruled that Mallya should be extradited from Britain to India to face fraud charges resulting from the collapse of his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Mallya left India in March 2016 owing more than $1 billion after defaulting on loan payments to a state-owned bank and allegedly misusing the funds.

The loans from the state-owned IDBI bank were intended to bail out his failed carrier Kingfisher Airlines.

Last year, judge Emma Arbuthnot said in court that Mallya had misrepresented how loans received from banks would be used and therefore had a case to answer.

She said bankers had been "charmed" by a "glamorous, flashy, famous, bejewelled, bodyguarded, ostensibly billionaire playboy" into losing their common sense.

Known for his lavish lifestyle, Mallya made Kingfisher beer a global brand.

He stepped down as the director of the Indian Premier League cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore last year.

His financial dealings are being investigated by the federal Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, a financial crimes agency.

Mallya was once known as the "King of Good Times" but dropped off India's most wealthy list in 2014, engulfed by Kingfisher Airlines' massive debts.

He has been living in a sprawling £11 million mansion in southeast England but has denied absconding.

(AFP)