Rahul Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad Pressurised Me Not to Complain About Vijay Mallya, Says Shia Central Waqf Board Chairman; Watch Video

Lucknow, Sep 13: The Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi on Thursday claimed that Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had pressurised him to keep silent and not complain about fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya. According to a tweet by ANI,  Rizvi said Mallya had encroached upon a Shia Waqf Board property near Meerut.

Rizvi further added that when he got to know about the encroachment, he sent a notice to Mallya on behalf of the Waqf board and wanted to initiate legal action against him. The Shia Waqf board chief revealed that the then SSP of Meerut, Mr Dubey,  had flatly declined to lodge an FIR against Vijay Mallya. He said he received a call from Ghulam Nabi Azad who made him talk to Rahul Gandhi over the phone and said that Mallya is a decent man and that he should not initiate action against him.

The revelation came hours after activist Shehzad Poonawalla claimed that he was a witness to Rahul Gandhi and Nirav Modi's meeting in September 2013. In his tweets, Poonawalla challenged the Congress President and said he can swear on Quran and undertake lie detector test to prove the same. Poonawalla revealed that Gandhi had met Nirav and his uncle Mehul Choksi at a hotel in September 2013 at a cocktail party and a bridal wear prog at Imperial Hotel Delhi.

On Wednesday, outside a London court, Mallya spoke to reporters during his extradition hearing at the Westminster Magistrates' Court and claimed that he had met finance minister Arun Jaitley before leaving the country in 2016. When Adding further Mallya said he left because he had a scheduled meeting in Geneva. "I met the finance minister before I left, repeated my offer to settle with the banks. That is the truth", Mallya said.

Taking a jibe at Arun Jaitley, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused him of "colluding" with Mallya and demanded that Jaitley should tender his resignation."Even if he (Mallya) caught up with you in the corridor why did you not tell the CBI, ED that he's going to flee, catch him? This is clearly a collusion, there is definitely a deal. Finance Minister should clearly say what transpired and he should resign", Gandhi said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 13, 2018 07:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).