NEW DELHI: India on Thursday asked UK to cut unnecessary delays and impediments in extradition of all fugitives, including businessman Vijay Mallya , who is wanted in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines .

At the first home affairs dialogue between India and UK , led by Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and his UK counterpart Patsy Wilkinson, the two sides expressed satisfaction in matters relating to extradition of wanted persons.

Sources said each of the two sides sought extradition of around a dozen of fugitives wanted by it. India brought up the practical difficulties and bottlenecks that often delay the extradition processes. The grounds often cited by fugitives to oppose and delay requests for their extradition from UK include poor condition of Indian jails and involvement in petty cases back in UK, for which they must be prosecuted and punished before their extradition can be processed.

"The UK delegation was persuaded to ensure that no opportunity should be given to the fugitives to circumvent the extradition processes," said a home ministry officer who was part of the dialogue.

Briefing newspersons after the meeting, adviser in the home ministry Ashok Prasad said that stress was laid on regular agency-to-agency contact to minimise delays in extradition processes. "We discussed how to cut short delays which can be curtailed with some extra effort," he said, adding that the discussion at the level of Mehrishi and Wilkinson was general in nature and did not delve into individual cases like Mallya's extradition.

However, given that the representatives of law enforcement agencies like CBI and ED were part of the team that held the dialogue, it is believed that Mallya's early extradition was discussed by them with the counterpart agencies.

61-year-old Mallya, who has been living in Britain since last year, was arrested by Scotland Yard last month at India's request for his extradition. However, within hours of his arrest, Mallya, who is accused of cheating and fraud, was released on bail by a London court. His extradition case is currently sub-judice.

The presence of certain Khalistani militant elements in the UK also came up for discussion during the Indo-UK home affairs dialogue.

"We discussed the issue of Khalistani militants based in the UK and they have promised to look into it," Prasad said.

Both sides agreed to address the challenges of illegal migrants and resolved to work together to ensure smooth return of Indians overstaying in the UK after proper verification.

Prasad said the Indian side brought up visa-related difficulties faced by Indian students, skilled professionals and dependents of Indian diplomats, which the UK official agreed to examine.

"Both India and the UK laid emphasis on cooperation on anti-terrorism mechanism and to strengthen mutual support to check cyber crimes. Both sides agreed to finalise these arrangements," Prasad said.

Sharing of intelligence inputs on a real-time basis, particularly with regard to the ISIS, and counter-radicalisation matters were discussed at the two-hour meeting, sources said.

India also offered to drop cases registered against a Bangladeshi national, who is lodged in Assam, so he can be extradited to England.



In Video: UK agrees to India's terms for Vijay Mallya’s extradition