Force India F1 team owner Vijay Mallya arrested in London

"He was arrested after attending a central London police station and will appear at Westminster Magistrates" Court later today, 18 April, ' read the official statement of the Scotland Yard.

Unless there is a fresh approach in London to extradition requests from India, it is unlikely that controversial Indian businessman Vijay Mallya will be actually extradited to India anytime soon.

India has lodged a formal request that Mallya is extradited to his native country; this is likely to happen through an existing extradition treaty between Britain and India.

After getting bail, Mallya tweeted: "Usual Indian media hype".

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.

"At least the extradition process has begun".

Creditors have auctioned Mallya's properties, including his beachfront property in Goa. Kingfisher Airlines, sharing its name with UB's flagship beer label, collapsed in 2013, having dropped from one of India's largest air carriers to one of its smallest, and had its government permits revoked.

According to Mallya's counsel in Mumbai, Amit Desai, the proceedings may last six months to a year before the United Kingdom court decides whether to send the flamboyant businessman back.

Since Mallya left the country, the government has been looking at steps to bring him back, he said.

While handing over the request, India had asserted that it has a "legitimate" case against Mallya and maintained that if an extradition request is honoured, it would show British "sensitivity towards our concerns".

Taking up the baton, finance minister Arun Jaitley broached the matter with UK's chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond and May when he visited London in February.

Earlier, Mallya's passport was impounded by the Indian authorities. The charges against Mallya include money laundering.

In its probe report prepared in this case, the agency had said the "money trail analysis revealed that out of the loan of Rs 860.92 crore, sanctioned and disbursed by IDBI, Rs 423 crore has been remitted out of India". Is it also not true that CBI had registered a case against Mallya in 2015?

A case management hearing was scheduled for May 17. It was alleged that Mallya took a loan of Rs 6,027 crore from these banks between 2005 and 2010 but "deliberately didn't pay while conspiring with group companies and promoters". The loan amount along with interest stands at over Rs 9,000 crore.

According to the figures released by the Ministry of External Affairs on March 22, India has only successfully extradited 62 persons since 2002. Congress even accused the BJP government for allegedly helping Modi to flee the country. "Extradition hearing in court started today as expected", he posted on his Twitter account yesterday.