New Delhi, May 28 (UNI) India is serious about extradition of fugitive business tycoon Vijay Mallya, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said here on Monday and maintained that United Kingdom has been firmly told the stance taken by British courts that they want to visit Indian jails to verify the prison conditions is "unacceptable".
"With regard to sending him (Mallya) to India, the courts have raised some issues and said they would like to inspect the conditions of Indian jails. Here, I would like to tell that during the recent Commonwealth head of nations Summit in London, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his British counterpart Theresa May that in India we still have those jails wherein leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru were imprisoned," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters here.
"So to raise the issue of conditions in our jail by British courts is not proper," she said.
The Minister said as far as extradition of Mr Mallya is concerned, Indian government has already sent the formal request for it.
"In one case in the court the State Bank of India consortium has won and now recovery process can be done," Ms Swaraj said.
The British courts had recently raised the issue of conditions of Indian jails when Mr Mallya citing “torture in Indian jails” had informed the court that a woman convict, Manjula Shetye, was murdered by jail staff inside Byculla prison in Mumbai.
The government and police officials in Maharashtra have said that there was no reason for the fugitive businessman to worry as adequate security arrangements are made as per the jail manual.
UNI DEVN-VT 1751