Indian businessman Vijay Mallya has lost an appeal in Britain's High Court to extradite the former airline magnate to India on £1 billion fraud charges. A ruling on Monday upheld a 2018 decision to extradite him to India to face fraud charges resulting from the collapse of his defunct company Kingfisher Airlines. India wants to bring back Mallya, 64, whose business interests have ranged from aviation to beverages, over £1.05 billion in loans Kingfisher took out from Indian banks which the authorities argue he had no intention of repaying. The judges in London rejected the appeal saying that there "was a prima facie case of fraud by false representation". Earlier this month, a hearing in the UK's bankruptcy court had given him more time to repay the money. Mallya, who is known as the “King of Good Times” in India, was arrested in London in April 2017 after 17 banks accused him of willfully defaulting on the £1.05bn debt accumulated by Kingfisher Airlines - a full-service carrier he founded in 2005 and shut down seven years later. Mallya now has the right to seek an appeal one more time to the UK Supreme Court. The Indian government said in February that Mallya must face trial in relation to “a very substantial allegation of dishonesty.” Mallya had been allowed to appeal the previous hearing on the basis that the lower court judge went too far in her earlier ruling, which at times made more aggressive claims than the Indian government’s own charges. But the appeal judges dismissed that argument, saying that her findings meant that a jury would agree that Mallya had a case to answer. Mallya is also fighting a number of civil cases in the UK after defaulting on the loans. He separately faces a bankruptcy petition from 12 state-owned Indian banks over the debt, as well as a number of freezing orders on several of his assets, including his properties, yachts, cars and paintings. Earlier this month, Judge Michael Briggs said in a ruling that the tycoon should be given time for his own counter settlement offer to work its way through the Indian legal system. The judge granted the extra time amid a dispute over whether there are enough funds to satisfy the claimants. The ruling said further legal arguments would be heard after June 1. They are in doubt because of the coronavirus crisis. Mallya accepts that he owes huge sums to the banks, but contests the amount, the papers show. He also claims that he was the target of a political witch-hunt that led to the downfall of his drinks-to-airline empire. Mallya fled to the UK from India in 2016 leaving behind the large debts. Some of the money from the loans for the airline was pumped into a vanity project, his Formula One team, which collapsed in 2011.
