Vijay Mallya’s extradition is significant in more ways than one in an election season

It was bad enough that the poster boy of defaulters, Vijay Mallya, managed to sneak out of the country with all his now legendary number of suitcases after gobbling up Rs 9,000 crore worth of taxpayers’ money. Many more followed suit with the likes of Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi  and Mehul Choksi winging out too in the face of a lax administration. But now that a UK judge has finally ruled that misappropriating taxpayer wealth of any country is a criminal offence fit for prison, howsoever dingy the confines may be, organised corruption may finally bear a dent on its till now robust journey.

It is another matter altogether that India’s prison system needs urgent reforms but Mallya’s crime was too big to invoke the human rights angle sighting the rigours of the Indian prison as a means of escape, which in this case was a refurbished Barrack No 22 in the Arthur Road prison of Mumbai where the King of Good Times is now slated to spend many of his days. The extradition is significant in more ways than one. First, coming in the run-up to the General Election next year, and in the wake of a comprehensive drubbing in three State elections that the BJP has suffered, it is a good ploy for the Government to talk of being the singular backbone against those robbing taxpayers’ (read voters’) hard-earned money. Already BJP president Amit Shah has signposted the extradition as Prime Minister’s unrelenting pursuit of mega defaulters who grew in size during the UPA regime. Second, it will go a long way in lifting cynicism against economic offenders and their might to go scotfree. It is the turn of big game bank scamsters to now guard their backs in the face of Mallya’s extradition, more so when India has managed to get only one offender extradited from the UK in 26 years despite having a wholesome treaty with Britain. The ‘India will find you’ threat is finally a reality knocking the doors of present and future offenders which will serve as a consummate warning and deterrent.

Mallya’s extradition comes close on the heels of axe on Christian Michel in the Agusta Westland case. It is also good to see that the Government’s revamp of economic offences departments is finally bearing fruit. The Union Cabinet clearing the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, which deals with defaulters fleeing abroad, is a step in the right direction. The Bankruptcy Code, 2016, is worth a mention here. Finally, and not the least at all, now that Mallya is less cocky and more deficient of a shield against malpractices, his former employees may finally smell the money that has been long due to them, what with the Government being in a position to make good use of the tycoon’s assets worth Rs 13,500 crore stashed away. Mallya now has just under a fortnight to appeal and going by history, it may take eons for him to finally be brought to India so overburdened UK’s higher courts are but that’s not the point. That chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot found prima facie evidence of large-scale fraud and money laundering by Mallya after a year-long trial, shows happy tidings that someone, somewhere opened her eyes to the fact that ‘there is a case to answer’. Economic offenders are not just about India, they are a global menace assailing the comity of nations and many of them are never brought to book mostly because of extradition treaty blues or the lack of will of Governments. An Indian Government can now well say it stands upright.