Arun Jaitley is lying, he must resign: Rahul Gandhi

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that party leader PL Puniya had witnessed Vijay Mallya and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley having a discussion in parliament just two days before the fugitive tycoon’s flight to the UK. Gandhi alleged Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is lying and demanded his resignation.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Gandhi attacked Jaitley saying, “Yesterday, Arun Jaitley said that Vijay Mallya had formally approached him in Parliament. He writes lengthy blogs but why did he not mention any of this before?” Along with it, he raised several questions.

Gandhi asked, “The absconder informed Finance Minister about fleeing the country. Why wasn’t this notified to CBI or ED?” He than added, “The notice issued for Vijay Mallya was changed to the inform notice. No one can do this other than CBI. They should clarify if they did this on their own or were orders given to CBI?”

The Congress chief even went to the extent of asking the resignation of the Union Finance Minister. He said, “This is a clear-cut case of collusion. There is some deal between them. FM Arun Jaitley must resign and this should be investigated.” He further added that both the Union Minister and the central government are lying.

In order to elaborate the details of the alleged meeting, Gandhi gave to the mic to senior Congress leader PL Puniya, who claims to see these two meeting outside the parliament. Puniya claimed, “Arun Jaitley is lying. I saw him having prolonged meeting in Central Hall of Parliament about two days before he was allowed to escape from India. Choukidar is not only Bhagidar but also Gunahagar.”

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He added, “On 1st March 2016, when I was in Central Hall of Parliament House, I witnessed Arun Jaitley and Vijay Mallya talking discretely. On 3rd March, we heard from media that he fled the country on 2nd March, 2016.” He claimed that he would resign from politics, if proven wrong. Punia said, “I have clearly stated about this in each of my interview with media. There are CCTV cameras, we can all see that for proof. If I’m wrong I’ll resign from politics.”

The Union Minister, in his Facebook post had said, “Since 2014, I have never given him (Vijay Mallya) any appointment to meet me and the question of his having met me does not arise”. Jaitley noted that he met Mallya in the Parliament corridor and had reminded him of how he “misused his privilege as a Rajya Sabha Member”.

Jaitley wrote, “I am making an offer of settlement”. “Having been fully briefed about his earlier “bluff offers”, without allowing him to proceed with the conversation, I curtly told him “there was no point talking to me and he must make offers to his bankers.”

On the other hand, speaking to the reporters outside the court, Mallya said, “The prosecution has argued their case. It’s now for judges to decide.” He also stated the reason why he left the country. He said, “I left because I had a scheduled meeting in Geneva.”

Adding on he also claimed that he met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Mallya said, “I met the finance minister before I left, repeated my offer to settle with the banks… that’s the truth.” However, he refused to divulge the details of the meeting. Mallya stated that he made a “very comprehensive offer” before the Karnataka High Court, “so that everybody gets paid”.

England’s Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot on Wednesday had said that the Britsh court would announce the decision whether fugitive tycoon Vijay Mallya will be extradited from the UK to India to face fraud charges or not.

ALSO READ: Vijay Mallya extradition: England court to announce verdict on December 10