PM Modi responsible for Vijay Mallya's Great Escape: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul said the CBI had changed the “Detain” notice for Mallya, to “Inform”.

He also alleged that the CBI wouldn't have changed the lookout notice for Mallya without the approval of the PM.

In a tweet, Rahul posted: "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."

Mallya, who owes Rs. 9,000 crore to banks and faces trial on different counts ranging from defaulting of loans to money siphoning, on Wednesday, claimed he met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley before leaving the country.  He also claimed to have made "repeated offers" to Jaitley to "settle issues."   

Following Mallya's claims, Jaitley on Wednesday took to social media to come clean on the matter.

Jaitley had said on a Facebook post, "The statement of Vijay Mallaya that he met me & offered settlement is factually false in as much as it does not reflect truth. Since 2014, I have never given him any appointment to meet me and the question of his having met me does not arise."

An ensuing post read: "Since he was a Member of Rajya Sabha and he occasionally attended the House, he misused that privilege on one occasion, having been fully briefed about his earlier “bluff offers”, I curtly told him “there was no point talking to me and he must make offers to his bankers.” ‬

Maintaining that he never gave an appointment to Mallya, Jaitley had said: "‪I did not even receive the papers that he was holding in his hand. Besides this one sentence exchange where he misused his privilege as a RS Member to further his commercial interest as a bank debtor, there is no question of my having ever given him an appointment to meet me.‬"

Earlier, Rahul had demanded that Jaitley should step down as the Union Minister over the claims.

"For 2.5 yrs Mr Jaitley has hidden from the public & the investigation agencies the meeting, he now suddenly remembers, in which Mr Mallya told him he was leaving for London. This is enough to make his continuance as FM untenable & disgraceful.

#ArunJaitleyStepDown."

Mallya fled India in March 2016.

The liquor baron is currently on bail on an extradition warrant since his arrest in April last year.

Mallya was arrested by Scotland Yard over a fraud case but was later granted bail by fulfilling a 650,000-pound bail bond.