London: In a reprieve to embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, the UK High Court Tuesday allowed him to appeal against his extradition order signed off by the UK home secretary Sajid Javid to face alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to ₹9,000 crores in India. Talking to reporters outside the court, Mallya described the ruling as a "vindication". "I have always maintained that these are false charges, fabricated charges and have no merit. She also questioned the admissibility of many witness statements and once again highlighted the badly paginated documents submitted by the government of India in the extradition case. "Your starting point is that the judge [Arbuthnot] has made findings of a prima facie case on allegations that you haven't had a chance to answer," noted Judge Leggatt, in an early observation on the grounds for the appeal.

Source: Mint July 02, 2019 14:50 UTC