Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met his UK counterpart Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Brazil and urged him to extradite fugitive Indian businessmen Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.
Vijay Mallya is accused in a bank loan default case and fled India in 2016, while Nirav Modi is wanted by Indian authorities for defrauding the Punjab National Bank (PNB).
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India is also trying to extradite Sanjay Bhandari, an accused middleman and consultant in arms deals, from the UK to face charges of tax evasion and money laundering.
In the meeting with Mr Starmer, PM Modi “noted the importance of addressing the issue of economic offenders” from India in the UK, an official statement said. This was the first meeting between the two leaders.
Had an extremely productive meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Rio de Janeiro. For India, the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the UK is of immense priority. In the coming years, we are eager to work closely in areas such as technology, green energy, security,… pic.twitter.com/eJk6hBnDJl
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 18, 2024
According to reports, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director, Praveen Sood, had also recently asked British minister of security, Dan Jarvis, to expedite these extraditions.
The Vijay Mallya Bank Fraud Case
The Indian government has been trying to extradite Vijay Mallya to face charges of fraud resulting from the collapse of his defunct company Kingfisher Airlines. He is accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore.
The 68-year-old, who lives in London, has denied all wrongdoing.
The former Rajya Sabha MP was declared a fugitive economic offender in 2019 by a special court for cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Nirav Modi Bank Fraud Case
Nirav Modi, along with his uncle and another fugitive Indian businessman Mehul Choksi, are the prime accused in the over Rs 14,000 crore PNB loan fraud case, which is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI.
They are being probed by the ED on money laundering charges for allegedly perpetrating fraud in connivance with bank officials and by the issuance of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) at the Brady House PNB branch in Mumbai.
