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KT EDIT: Mallya extradition is a win for India, but will justice be done?

The news of UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid approving the extradition order of Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya is being celebrated as a prospective win by the Narendra Modi government. Arun Jaitley, India's finance minister who is in the United States for treatment, tweeted: "Modi Government clears one more step to get Mallya extradited while Opposition rallies around the Saradha scamsters."
Mallya's extradition makes a great headline, especially in the election season. He is seen as the poster boy of bank defaulters but unsurprisingly he is not alone in the long list of defaulters who have milked the financial system to their advantage and fled the country without paying their dues. As per the ministry of external affairs, 31 individuals accused of fraud and economic offenses are holed up in foreign countries. Collectively, these individuals owe over $5.58 billion to Indian banks and public institutions.
Connivance of top officials in banks with rich businessmen for deals and favours is not unheard of in the Indian banking system.  The memories of diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his clan fleeing India just days before the news of the biggest banking scam surfaced is still fresh in public minds. And the latest sacking of Chanda Kochhar, former head of the country's second largest private bank, is another case in point.
India has done well to pass the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act last year that seeks to confiscate properties and assets of economic offenders who evade prosecution by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts. It is a great move, but this needs to be complemented well with checks and balances that discourage corruption and frauds in the first place. Corruption plagues public and private sectors alike. In the last decade, the government has been able to get only four Indians accused in bank frauds extradited from foreign countries. With elections just a few months away, news of Mallya's extradition will definitely burnish the Modi government's anti-corruption credentials. But whether it will lead to justice is something that remains to be seen.