14 September,2018 03:00 PM IST | New Delhi | IANS
Rahul Gandhi
Stepping up his attack against the government, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that it was "inconceivable" that the CBI, which reports to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, would have diluted without his approval the lookout notice against fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya.
"Mallya's great escape was aided by the CBI quietly changing the "detain" notice for him, to "inform". The CBI reports directly to the Prime Minister. It is inconceivable that the CBI, in such a high profile, controversial case, would change a lookout notice without the approval of the Prime Minister," Gandhi tweeted.
His remarks came a day after he accused Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of "colluding" with Mallya to help him flee the country and demanded his resignation.
He asked why had Jaitley not informed the investigative agencies about his meeting with the chief of now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
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Mallya, who left India on March 2, 2016, faces charges of defrauding banks to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore.
Gandhi on Thursday accused Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of "colluding" with fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya to help him flee the country and demanded his resignation.
"The Finance Minister talks to an absconder (Mallya), and the absconder tells the Finance Minister 'I am going to London'. Yet the Minister neither tells the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or the police. Why?" Gandhi told the media at the party headquarters here.
"He was given a free passage to leave the country by Jaitley," said Gandhi and alleged that the logistics of Mallya going out of the country were discussed at that meeting.
"The Finance Minister has colluded with a criminal planning to run away from the country," he said.
However, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday rejected Vijay Mallya's claim that the fugitive businessman met him before he left India two years ago.
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