India began formal proceedings to extradite Mr. Mallya who is wanted in connection with a number of charges, including defaulting on paying loans amounting to Rs 9,000 crore earlier this year, with papers being handed over in New Delhi and London. While there is an acknowledgment that the extradition is up to the U.K. court system, sources previously said that they believed there was also political will to support the process.

While no one had been extradited to India in the first 23 years of the India-UK Extradition Treaty of 1993, Britain last year extradited Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel who was wanted by India in relation to the 2002 Gujarat riots, leading to hopes for future successful extradition requests.

"Today Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Extradition Unit have this morning, Tuesday 19 April arrested a man on an extradition warrant," said Scotland Yard in a statement, adding that he had been arrested on behalf of Indian authorities in relation to accusations of fraud. "He was arrested after attending a central London police station and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today." However he appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London and was seen walking out with his legal team a few hours later after being granted bail.

In January last, a CBI court issued a non-bailable warrant against Mr. Mallya in the Rs. 720 crore IDBI Bank loan default case. Mr. Mallya, whose now defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, fled India on March 2, 2016.

Previously a member of the Akhila Bharata Janata Dal, Mallya joined the Subramanian Swamy led Janata Party in 2003 and served as its National Working President till 2010. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2002 as an independent member from his home state of Karnataka with the support of the Congress party and Janata Dal (Secular). In 2010, he was re-elected for a second term, this time with the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Mallya, now declared a wilful defaulter by banks, including the State Bank of India, had unsuccessfully offered the consortium of lenders an initial settlement of ₹4,000 crore, out of Kingfisher Airlines’ total dues of about ₹9,000 crore.