New Delhi, September 14: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has responded to the allegations levelled by Congress President against the investigation agency of helping Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi in fleeing the country. The CBI refuted the charges of the Congress president. The central agency termed the allegation ‘baseless’.

In a statement, the agency said, “As has been stated a no. of times earlier, the decision to change LOC against Vijay Mallya was taken as at the time there were not sufficient grounds for CBI to detain and arrest him. The decision was taken at the appropriate level as a part of the process and not individually by the officer as alleged.” The agency also claimed that the complaint against Nirave Modi and Mehul Choksi in PNB scam was received almost a month after they had left the country, so the question of any CBI officer having any hand in their fleeing the country does not arise.

The CBI further stated that proper action should have been taken if the complaint was filed in time. Earlier, the Congress president had accused CBI’s Joint Director A K Sharma of weakening the lookout notice which allowed Mallya to escape. Gandhi in his tweet called Sharma,’ PM’s blue-eyed-boy’. He also alleged that Sharma also helped Nirav and Choksi to escape India.

Yesterday, the Congress President accused the CBI of changing Mallya’s ‘Detain’ notice to ‘Inform’ notice. Gandhi 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.”

The Congress has continuously attacked the Modi government after Mallya claimed that he met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley before leaving India. However, Jaitley denied Mallya’s claims.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 15, 2018 07:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).