New Delhi: Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi on Wednesday said the top priority for authorities in India was to make liquor baron Vijay Mallya return and disclose his assets, most of which are abroad, failing which proceedings for revocation of his passport may be initiated as was done in the case of former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.
He said the issue of recovering over Rs 9000 crore from him would be a long-drawn legal process.
"First option is to ask him to appear and, if he does not, then we can initiate proceedings for revocation of his passport. Once his passport is revoked, then technically a person does not have any right to reside anywhere else...then the country where the person is, forces him to go back to the country from where he has come," he told a private news channel.
"In the case of Lalit Modi, revocation of passport procedures were taken but it was quashed by the Delhi High Court," he added.
The AG also said he had came to know through media that the process to extradite Mallya has been initiated as India had signed a treaty with the United Kingdom. "I have read in a few newspapers that extradition procedures have been commenced as we have an extradition treaty with the UK," he said.
The AG said he was not concerned much with the merits of the case in which a consortium of banks approached the apex court but for a direction for forfeiture of his passport as he has assets outside India.
"All his assets are abroad, not within India. If assets are abroad its a long-drawn process. You cannot go and seize assets in England or South Africa. That's the issue. I am not really concerned about merits of the case. That will go on.
"I was really concerned with one relief, that he should be asked to come to India and he should be asked to deposit his passport, so that we can ask him about the disclosure of his assets," he added.
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