Vijay Mallya decries witch-hunt after winning right to appeal extradition

London: Beleaguered liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya has claimed that he is victim of a witch-hunt based on a "false" case against him after the UK High Court granted him permission to appeal against his extradition order.

The 63-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss, wanted in India to face alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crores, won a reprieve when a two-judge bench at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday concluded that "arguments can be reasonably made on some aspects of the prima facie case put forward by the Indian government.

"After all the mockery made of me, I would respectfully ask those interested parties to focus on the Divisional Bench Judgement in England, allowing me to challenge the core of the false prima facie case filed against me by the CBI. Witch-hunt?," Mallya tweeted. "Despite the good court result for me, I once again repeat my offer to pay back the Banks that lent money to Kingfisher Airlines in full. Please take the money. With the balance, I also want to pay employees and other creditors and move on in life," he said, adding that justice had prevailed in his favour.

In their ruling, Justices George Leggatt and Andrew Popplewell accepted that there was "substantial ground" to review if Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot was wrong to conclude that the Indian government had established a prima facie case of fraud against Mallya when she ordered his extradition last December.

The High Court judges noted that some of the lower court's findings may have been on allegations that the defence had not had a "chance to answer".