Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya on Thursday lost his appeal in the UK Supreme Court against his extradition to India, clearing a major roadblock for the Narendra Modi government to bring him back in the next 28 days.
The former parliamentarian, who founded the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, faces charges of fraud and money laundering worth $1.3bn.
He left India in March 2016 under the pretext of personal reasons.
Mallya has defrauded at least 17 Indian banks, drawing loans which he allegedly routed to gain full or partial stake in about 40 companies abroad.
As per sources in London, now that Mallya's legal options in the UK have exhausted, he may still attempt to pull strings in the office of Home Secretary Priti Patel, who gets to have the final say on his extradition to India.
After losing an appeal in the London High Court against an extradition order to India, Mallya had filed an appeal in the UK Supreme Court earlier this month.
Earlier Thursday, Mallya again urged the central government to unconditionally accept his offer of bank loan repayment and close the case against him.
In a tweet, the embattled businessman alleged that his offer of 100% payback to a consortium of public sector banks is being constantly ignored.
"Congratulations to the government for a Covid-19 relief package. They can print as much currency as they want BUT should a small contributor like me who offers 100% payback of state-owned bank loans be constantly ignored? Please take my money unconditionally and close," Mallya tweeted.
Mallya, however, said that his repeated offers to repay his dues have been ignored by the Modi government.
In the past also, Mallya had tweeted that he had offered to pay in full the money borrowed by Kingfisher Airlines to the banks concerned but neither the banks were willing to take the money nor the enforcement directorate was willing to release his attached assets.
The ED has attached many properties of Mallya in the last few years under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Mallya is being investigated by the CBI and the enforcement directorate in connection with the loan fraud case.
He was arrested by the UK authorities on April 20, 2017 on the request of the Indian investigative agencies.
