The 61-year-old liquor baron was arrested at about 9.30 am London local time and was taken to Westminster’s Magistrates’ Court in London where he was granted a conditional bail.

“It was a voluntary action. He will be out in a few minutes,” said a member of Mallya’s team at the court, without giving any further details of the bail conditions. 

Downplaying news of his arrest, Mallya hit out at Indian media in a tweet

But London Police had already issued a statement saying that he had been arrested

Mallya, whose now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, had fled India on March 2, 2016. 

He has repeatedly dismissed the charges against him. In January, an Indian court ordered a consortium of lenders to start the process of recovering the loans. 

Senior Indian officials described his arrest as the first salvo in the case, which will now involve a legal process in the UK to determine if Mallya can be extradited to India to face charges in Indian courts.