Britain has agreed to share information on Sikh separatist organisations operating on its soil with India, a top government official said on Thursday.
At a press briefing called on Thursday, Ministry of Home Affairs Advisor Ashok Prasad said that Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi had spoken to his UK counterpart Pasty Wilkinson about the need to “rein in” such organisations operating in the country.
"Sikh militancy did come up for discussion and it was decided to step up information sharing between agencies of the countries," Prasad said, adding that the two countries agreed that there was a need to improve the general framework under which the agencies of the two countries worked.
The two also discussed extradition and deportation issues, although Prasad denied that they specifically discussed embattled India businessman Vijay Mallya, who had been arrested by the Scotland Yard last month over a criminal case of loan fraud.
Once dubbed “The King of Good Times”, Mallya left the country in March last year after banks decided to approach Supreme Court over Rs 9,000 crore of unpaid loans against his now-defunct company, Kingfisher Airlines.
Mallya also faces criminal charges for suspected loan fraud at IDBI bank for not paying back Rs 720 crore the bank had extended.
A special court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Mallya in January this year.