Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday termed the revelations made by Vijay Mallya ‘extremely serious’ and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an independent probe.
Demanding Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s removal from the cabinet, the Congress president tweeted, “Given Vijay Mallya’s extremely serious allegations in London today, the PM should immediately order an independent probe into the matter. Arun Jaitley should step down as FInance Minister while this probe is underway.”
Given Vijay Mallya’s extremely serious allegations in London today, the PM should immediately order an independent probe into the matter. Arun Jaitley should step down as FInance Minister while this probe is underway.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 12, 2018
Rahul’s response came hours after the liquor baron made sensational allegations stating that he had fled India after informing Jaitley about it. Speaking to reporters outside a local court in London, the billionaire businessman had said, “I left because I had a scheduled meeting in Geneva. I met the finance minister before I left. I repeated my offers to settle matters before I left. The banks had filed objections to my settlement letters.”
A visibly embarrassed Jaitley had issued a quick clarification through a Facebook post, where he wrote, “…He (Mallya) misused that privilege on one occasion while I was walking out of the House to go to my room. He paced up to catch up with me and while walking uttered a sentence that ”I am making an offer of settlement”. Having been fully briefed about his earlier “bluff offers”, without allowing him to proceed with the conversation, I curtly told him “there was no point talking to me and he must make offers to his bankers.”
Mallya is accused of defrauding banks to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore before he fled to London, where the Indian government is currently pursuing his extradition back to India.