Out of legal options, Vijay Mallya may seek asylum in UK

Mumbai: Beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya is understood to have recently filed an application seeking political asylum in the UK, said top legal sources close to the development. His team of lawyers had been working on the asylum route as a last resort, if his appeal challenging the extradition proceedings were rejected, said legal sources in the UK.

These sources further added that the request for asylum has already been sent to the office of UK home secretary Priti Patel. On May 14, the UK High court — which had ruled in April that Mallya could be extradited to India — declined to grant him leave to approach the Supreme Court. It’s not clear if the asylum request was filed before or after that date. “At this point we can only confirm he has moved the UK home secretary’s office seeking political asylum,” said a legal expert privy to the development. Mallya did not respond to an email from ET. Emails sent to Patel and her office remained unanswered till press time Tuesday.