Rahul Gandhi renews attack over Vijay Mallya`s escape, blames PM Narendra Modi`s `blue-eyed-boy` in CBI

Rahul Gandhi accused CBI joint director AK Sharma of allegedly weakening the lookout notice issued for Vijay Mallya.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday continued to attack the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of liquor baron Vijay Mallya fleeing India. Taking to microblogging site Twitter, the Gandhi scion accused CBI joint director AK Sharma of allegedly weakening the lookout notice issued for Vijay Mallya.

Pointing that Sharma is a Gujarat cadre officer, the Congress president alleged that he is the “blue-eyed-boy” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the CBI. He further claimed that the CBI joint director was also responsible for the escape of absconding billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

“CBI Jt. Director, A K Sharma, weakened Mallya’s “Look Out” notice, allowing Mallya to escape. Mr Sharma, a Gujarat cadre officer, is the PM’s blue-eyed-boy in the CBI. The same officer was in charge of Nirav Modi & Mehul Choksi’s escape plans. Ooops...investigation!” tweeted the Congress president.

This comes a day after Rahul Gandhi alleged that Mallya’s escape was aided by the CBI. He had accused the agency of changing the “detain” notice of him to “inform”. The Congress chief had also alleged that the lookout notice could not be changed without the approval of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Gandhi scion had tweeted, “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.”

Notably, the CBI has said that its decision to change the 2015 Lookout Circular (LoC) against Mallya from "detain" to merely informing about his movements was an "error" in judgement.

Mallya, who is currently facing an extradition trial in London’s Westminster court, had recently said that he had met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley before leaving India. Speaking to mediapersons during the previous hearing, the liquor baron had said that he had met the Finance Minister in Parliament.

The Finance Minister, however, rubbished his claims calling them “factually incorrect”. Jaitley had accused Mallya of misusing his position as a Rajya Sabha member.