Unrelenting in his attack on the issue of Vijay Mallya, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday trained his guns directly at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it was the CBI which aided the fugitive tycoon's "great escape" by changing the "detain" notice to "inform" and this was "inconceivable" that this was done without Prime Minister Narendra Modi's approval.
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."
On Thursday, Rahul had demanded resignation of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, accusing him of "colluding with" Mallya and "allowing the criminal to flee". Later in the evening, he sought Jaitley's resignation.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala latched on to the CBI's reported admission that it made an "error of judgment" in diluting the Look Out Circular against Mallya in 2016 from detain to inform. He also pointed to the delay by a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India in moving the Supreme Court against the liquor baron despite being advised to do so by senior advocate Dushyant Dave.
"The question is simple, nation wants to know who was the architect, executor, benefactor and protector in this case," Surjewala asked, hinting that both banks and investigative agencies were asked to go easy on Mallya at the behest of the Modi Government.
Surjewala, quoting media reports, said that Dave has stated that he advised 17 banks on how to approach the apex court to seize Mallya's passport in February 2016 before Mallya's departure to the UK, but a petition was filed only four days after he fled
"On 19 Aug 2014, SBI issued a notice stating Vijay Mallya is a willful defaulter. On Sept 2014, United Bank of India also stated same. By 2015, SFIO & CBI registered complaints against him. So how can CBI now say that they had no proof of his fraud," he questioned.