After former IPL administrator Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher Airlines, another scam-accused, diamond trader Nirav Modi , is believed to be hiding in the UK. Why did they head to the UK when they realised they would be caught in India ? Is UK a safe country for fugitives from Indian law? Here's the story:It’s not just the Modis — Nirav and Lalit — and the Mallyas of India who have sought refuge in Queen’s land. Over 5,500 people from India have sought political asylum in Britain since 2013, not all of them criminals though. UK is a signatory to European Convention on Human Rights—if UK courts deem that a person to be extradited is likely to face torture or death penalty, or the extradition is due to political reasons, they may deny the extradition request.Extradition proceedings are slow in the UK. India has made nine extradition requests, including one for Vijay Mallya to the UK: for Rajesh Kapoor (2011) for forgery and fraud, Tiger Hanif (2004) for involvement in terrorism, Atul Singh (2012) for sex crimes, Raj Kumar Patel (2009) for forgery, Jatinder Kumar Angurala and Asha Rani Angurala (2014) for bank fraud, Sanjeev Kumar Chawla (2004) for cricket betting and Shaik Sadiq (2004) for conspiracy and theft. These requests are still pending in courts.The UK has extradited only one Indian — Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel in 2016 — since both the countries signed extradition treaty in 1992 even though India has extradited several British fugitives such as Maninder Pal Singh Kohli in 2007 for murder, Somaia Ketan Surendra in 2009 for cheating and Kulwinder Singh Uppal in 2013 for kidnapping. The UK has rejected a large number of extradition requests made by India on different grounds. These include for Raymond Varley, Ravi Shankaran, Velu Boopalan, Ajay Prasad Khaitan, Virendra Kumar Rastogi and Anand Kumar Jain.