The London high court has quadrupled the weekly living allowance of Vijay Mallya, the erstwhile King of Good Times whose Rs 10,210-crore assets have been frozen by the court.
The Times of India reported that the London High Court increased Mallya's weekly living allowance from £5,000 (Rs 4.5 lakh) to £18,325 (Rs 16 lakh). “If he is used to a luxury lifestyle then the court will not suddenly make him live on £200 (Rs 17,000) a week,” said Sarosh Zaiwalla, senior partner at Zaiwalla & Co. LLP London.
According to the report, after the increase, Mallya's weekly allowance now equates to the average annual salary of a British school leaver.
Advertisement
The 62-year-old businessman was arrested based on an extradition warrant by Scotland Yard in April last year and has since been appearing for his extradition trial, which opened on December 4 last year to establish if he can be forced to return to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering involving Kingfisher Airlines' default of bank loans worth nearly Rs 9,000 crore.
The latest ruling comes weeks before India's extradition case against Mallya is set to come up for one of its final hearings before Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot onMarch 16, with a judgment expected in May.
The businessman remains on a 650,000-pound bail bond, extended until April 2 at the last hearing in the extradition case in January.
Advertisement
(With PTI Inputs)
