'Mallya’s Great Escape' aided by CBI, had PM's nod: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Sep 14: Vijay Mallya issue has just refused to die down. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday launched a fresh attack on the BJP over Vijay Mallya. He alleged that the lookout notice for Mallya was changed on the approval of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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 Gandhi demanded for the resignation of finance minister Arun Jaitley, accusing him of "colluding with" Mallya and "allowing the criminal to flee".

Gandhi also referred to his party colleague PL Punia, who alleged that he had seen Mallya in conversation with Jaitley on March 1, 2016, a day before the Kingfisher Airlines chief fled the country.

Describing it as an "open and shut case of collusion", the Congress chief said there was some deal between Jaitley and Mallya, and demanded the finance minister's resignation and a probe into the matter.

Later in the evening, Gandhi reiterated on Twitter his demand for Jaitley's resignation.

Mallya had on Thursday claimed that he met Jaitley before leaving India and offered to settle his dues. Jaitley immediately rebutted Mallya's claim and maintained that he had not given the businessman an appointment since 2014, but that the latter used his privilege as a Member of Parliament (MP) and accosted him in Parliament. Mallya too admitted as much subsequently.

Mallya, who fled India even as a debt court in Bangalore was set to act against him for defaulting on loans issued by several banks led by the state-owned State Bank of India, is in London where a court will pronounce its verdict in an extradition hearing against him on December 10. The court finished hearing the case on Wednesday.