Indian fugitive and former liquor businessman Vijay Mallya lost his extradition appeal to India on Thursday in the British Supreme Court. With this, a major obstacle in the government’s way of bringing him to India in the next 28 days has been cleared.

Former MP Vijay Mallya, the founder of the country’s largest spirits company, United Spirit and the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, faces charges of fraud and money laundering valued at $ 1.3 billion. He left India in March 2016 as an excuse for personal reasons. Mallya took loans from at least 17 Indian banks and defrauded him. He used the loan amount to acquire a full or partial stake in about 40 companies abroad.

According to London-based sources, all legal options for Mallya in the UK have been exhausted, but he may be knocking in the office of British Home Minister Preeti Patel, who has the right to make the final decision on his extradition to India. Mallya appealed against his extradition to the British Supreme Court earlier this month after he lost an appeal in the London High Court.

Mallya had earlier proposed to the Central Government on Thursday that he wants to repay the entire loan amount, and to end the matter. Mallya said, but the Modi government is ignoring his repeated request to repay the loan. Interestingly, it praised the Rs 20 lakh crore package announced by the Government of India to revive the stalled economy due to the long-enforced lockdown caused by the coronavirus epidemic.