Rahul demands FM Jaitley’s resignation in Mallya case
new delhi — The leader of India’s opposition Congress Party has called for the resignation of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over what he termed an act of “collusion” in the case of Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya — an accusation Jaitley denies.
India wants to extradite the 62-year-old businessman from Britain to face criminal action relating to loans taken out by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, and Indian authorities want to recover about $1.4 billion they say Kingfisher owes.
Mallya told media outside a London court where his case was being heard on Wednesday that he had met Jaitley to settle matters before he left the country, sparking accusations from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government was in a position to prevent him leaving the country.
“Vijay Mallya was given a free passage by the finance minister,” Gandhi told a press conference on Thursday of the perceived missed opportunity.
Ridiculing Jaitley, Gandhi said: “Yesterday Jaitley said Mallya had approached him informally. He writes long blogs, but forgot to write about this in any of his blogs.” He also questioned why Jaitley did not inform the CBI, ED or the police that Mallya had told him about his plans to go to London.
“Our first question is an absconder tells the Finance Minister that I am going to London and the Finance Minister doesn’t refer it to CBI, ED or the police.
“Our second question is there was a lookout notice against Mallya which was diluted to an inform notice. Who changed it? This can be done only by one who controls the CBI,” he alleged. Jaitley denied any settlement had been reached in a Facebook post on Wednesday, saying he had declined to hold an audience with Mallya by telling him there was “no point talking to me”.
“There is no question of my having ever given him an appointment to meet me,” Jaitley said in the post.
At the media conference, Congress MP P.L. Punia claimed to give an eyewitness account of the meeting between Jaitley and Mallya in the Central Hall of Parliament before the businessman fled the country on March 2, 2016.
“The Finance Minister talks to an absconder (Mallya) and the absconder tells the Finance Minister that I am going to London. The Finance Minister neither told the CBI, the ED or the police, why?
“He was given a free passage to leave the country by the Finance Minister,” said Gandhi and alleged that the logistics of Mallya going out of the country were discussed at the meeting.
“The Finance Minister has colluded with a criminal.”
Punia claimed the meeting between Jaitley and Mallya lasted 1520 minutes and alleged that Mallya took Jaitley’s permission after holding consultations with him about his planned flight abroad.
“The meeting happened on March 1, 2016, a day after the Union budget was presented. In the Central Hall, initially Mallya and Jaitley were standing and were talking intently. Then they moved to the benches in the Central Hall and were seated and talking,” said Punia.
“Later, on March 3 morning, news appeared that Mallya left the country on March 2. My first reaction was that I had seen them together in Central Hall a day earlier,” said Punia. —
Our first question is an absconder tells the finance minister that I am going to London and the finance minister doesn’t refer it to CBI, ED or the police.
Our second question is there was a lookout notice against Mallya which was diluted to an inform notice. Who changed it? This can be done only by one who controls the CBI.