The Indian government has submitted the requisite "opening note" and paperwork related to Vijay Mallya's extradition case to the liquor baron's legal team within the UK court deadline on Tuesday 1 August, the PTI has reported.
Chief Magistrate Emma Louise Arbuthnot, presiding at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London at the last hearing in the case on July 6, had set July 31 as the deadline for the Indian side - represented by the Uk's Crown Prosecution System (CPS) - to provide Mallya's defence team with a detailed opening note on the case.
The 61-year-old tycoon is sought by Indian authorities for allegedly defaulting on several bank loans amounting to nearly Rs 9,000 crores.
The next hearing to assess the progress in the case will be held at Westminster Magistrates' Court on September 14. Mallya, who has been in self-imposed exile in the UK since March 2016, was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on April 18 and is currently out on bail.
The CPS, arguing on behalf of the Indian government earlier this month, had told the court that they had "excellent cooperation" with the Indian authorities in the case and now had sufficient material to establish a prima facie case for the extradition of the former chief of erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines.
The judge agreed with the CPS to "progress with some rigour" and retained December 4 as the date for a final hearing in the case.
If the Chief Magistrate rules in favour of extradition at the end of the trial, the UK home secretary must order Mallya's extradition within two months of the appropriate day. However, the case can go through a series of appeals before arriving at a conclusion.
