New Delhi: India on Thursday requested the United Kingdom not to consider any request for asylum by fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya as there appeared to be ''no ground for his persecution in the country.''
Last week, the UK government had indicated that Mallya is unlikely to be extradited to India anytime soon, saying there is ''a legal issue that needed to be resolved before his extradition can be arranged.''
"We have been in touch with the UK side for his early extradition. We have also requested the UK side not to consider his asylum, if requested by him, because there appeared to be no ground for his persecution in India," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said at an online media briefing.
He said that New Delhi has been in touch with the UK for his "early" extradition.
Vijay Mallya's leave to appeal against extradition in UK Supreme Court was rejected a few weeks ago leaving no further legal remedy in the country.
The UK top court's decision marked a major setback to the 64-year-old businessman as it came weeks after he lost his High Court appeal in April against an extradition order to India.
It now up to the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to give a final go-ahead by signing on the extradition papers. Mallya had committed a fraud of Rs 9,000 crore on a consortium of Indian banks.
Mallya has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.
The High Court verdict in April upheld the 2018 ruling by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at the end of a year-long extradition trial in December 2018 that the former Kingfisher Airlines boss had a "case to answer" in the Indian courts.
