Businessman Vijay Mallya's claim that the Indian government's efforts to extradite him were a result of "political vendetta" was "mere fiction of his imagination", a special PMLA court observed in its order. Mallya, accused of defaulting on loans of over Rs 9,000 crore, was on January 5 declared a fugitive economic offender (FEO) by special Judge M S Azmi of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court.

The judge, in his order that was made available to media Saturday, said, "Mere statement that the government of India had pursued a political vendetta against him and initiated criminal investigations and proceeding against him cannot be ground for his stay in UK." Besides these bare statements, there is nothing to support as to how the government of India initiated investigation and proceedings to pursue political vendetta, the judge said in his order. "Hence the arguments in these regards are mere fiction of his imagination to pose himself as law abiding citizen," he added.