PM Modi was privy to 'Mallya’s Great Escape', says Rahul Gandhi

It is inconceivable that the CBI would change a lookout notice without the approval of the PM,''said Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday referring to CBI diluting ''look out notice'' to ''inform notice'' days before Vijay Mallya escaped to London.

''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,'' tweeted Rahul Gandhi a day after accusing Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of ''colluding with the criminal" and allowed to him to escape from the country.

The Gandhi scion fired a fresh salvo at Modiafter reports surfaced that CBI diluted a ''look outnotice'' against Vijay Mallya, calling for his detention on sight at airports, to "Inform notice" before he left India for the UK in the middle of loan fraud investigations against him.

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The CBI said the notice, put out on October 16, 2015, was converted weeks later on November 24 into a notice for "report on arrival" because it didn't believe Mallya was a flight risk. The liquor baronhad, at the time, frequently travelled between India and the UK.

The Congress on Thursday accused Narendra Modi-led NDA government of taking no action against fugitive liquor baron, accused of Rs 9,000-crore bank fraud, despite registration of an FIR by the CBI in July 2015.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked who got the CBI "lookout notice" of October 16, 2015 changed for detaining Mallya to merely an "inform notice" on November 23, 2015.

Accusing the government and Arun Jaitley of lying on the issue of liquor baron Vijay Mallya, Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday alleged that the finance minister had "colluded with the criminal" and allowed to him to escape from the country.

The charge came a day after the former Kingfisher Airlines boss said in London that he met Jaitley before leaving India and offered to settle his dues, a charge the finance minister denied as "false".