Vijay Mallya’s escape: Evidence points to Modi Govt’s culpability

There is now enough circumstantial evidence pointing to the Modi government’s culpability in letting bank defaulter Vijay Mallya leave the country. Lawyer Dushyant Dave’s statement that he had clearly advised his client State Bank of India to move court to stop Mallya leaving the country is the first substantial evidence pointing towards the Modi government’s culpability in Mallya’s dramatic escape from the country, after siphoning off hundreds of crores from the SBI.

Dave, a senior Supreme Court lawyer, had advised SBI four days before Mallya left the country to take legal action to stop the defaulting businessman from fleeing the country. Dave had told the SBI that it must approach the Supreme Court to put stop to Mallya’s plan to go abroad. The SBI did not heed his advice and Mallya left the country four days later.

Dave told Indian Express that his client the SBI contacted him on February 28, 2016 for his advice in the Mallya case. Dave, according to Indian Express, "advised SBI to go to Supreme Court on February 29, 2016, for getting an order restraining Mallya from leaving the country…. SBI chairperson and people at the top within the government knew about this meeting and the advice given by me, However, there was no action taken upon this.”

Mallya left the country on March 2, 2016 while the SBI moved the Supreme Court in this regard only by March 5, 2106. Mallya was by that time comfortably settled in London. The SBI has denied any laxity on its part to let Mallya go. But facts speak for themselves because the Bank has not contradicted Dave’s statement in this regard.

Is it not conclusive evidence that both the top brass within the bank and the government were aware that Mallya was about to leave the country? Dave clearly says that the “SBI chairperson and the people at the top in the government knew about my advice’’. Why did the then “SBI chairperson and the top brass within the government” not act upon Dave’s advice in Mallya case?

Suspect role of “caged parrot” CBI

Another evidence pointing to the government’s complicity in Mallya’s escape is the role of the Central Bureau of Investigation. It’s now in public domain that the CBI diluted it’s own Look-out Circular (LoC) in Mallya’s case. The CBI LoC circular against Mallya was issued to airports three years before Mallya left the country. The CBI suddenly down graded its own circular in Mallya case from “detain” to merely “’inform”.

Isn’t it funny! Even a child in this country knows that the CBI has the history of being ‘his masters’ voice’. Even Supreme Court once described the CBI as a “caged parrot”. Will it not be fair inference that in the Mallya case the CBI did exactly what its masters told it to do while downgrading its LoC from “detain’’ to "inform”?

Who would believe Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in these circumstances when he said that Mallya met him in the Parliament gallery and he rebuffed Mallya. Mr Jaitley, you better heed Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s advice and quit. Because you were either listening to your boss or you were protecting Mallya’s interests and not the country’s interests. Both amount to a serious lapse on your part.