Stepping up his attack against the central government on the stunning disclosure by Vijay Mallya, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday directly held Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for the billionaire businessman’s escape from India.
Taking to Twitter, Rahul wrote, “Mallya’s Great Escape was aided by the CBI quietly changing the “Detain” notice for him, to “Inform”. The CBI reports directly to the PM. It is inconceivable that the CBI, in such a high profile, controversial case, would change a lookout notice without the approval of the PM.”
Mallya’s Great Escape was aided by the CBI quietly changing the “Detain” notice for him, to “Inform”. The CBI reports directly to the PM. It is inconceivable that the CBI, in such a high profile, controversial case, would change a lookout notice without the approval of the PM.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 14, 2018
Earlier on Thursday, the Congress president had renewed his demand for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s sacking for colluding in Mallya’s escape in 2016. He wrote, “For 2.5 yrs Mr Jaitley has hidden from the public & the investigation agencies the meeting, he now suddenly remembers, in which Mr Mallya told him he was leaving for London. This is enough to make his continuance as FM untenable & disgraceful.”
For 2.5 yrs Mr Jaitley has hidden from the public & the investigation agencies the meeting, he now suddenly remembers, in which Mr Mallya told him he was leaving for London. This is enough to make his continuance as FM untenable & disgraceful. #ArunJaitleyStepDown
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 13, 2018
Addressing a hurriedly called press conference, Rahul had also said that Jaitley was lying on the issue that he did not meet Mallya. As first raised by Janta Ka Reporter, the Congress president asked why Jaitley had not informed the investigative agencies about his meeting with Mallya.
Much to the discomfort of Jaitley, an old tweet by BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, hinting at the finance ministry’s involvement in facilitating Mallya’s escape, too has surfaced. In his tweet, posted in June this year, Swamy had alleged that someone very powerful in the Narendra Modi government had changed the lookout notice issued against Mallya to allow the billionaire businessman to leave India.
Mallya had earlier this week sensationally disclosed that Jaitley was aware of his plans to leave India.