Q4. What did Finance Minister Arun Jaitely discuss with Vijay Mallya in their meeting, just before the latter fled the country?

Q3. Why didn’t SBI representatives appear in court after being expressly advised by their advocate to seek a restraining order against Mallya?

Q2. Who will be held accountable for ordering the notice to be downgraded?

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in October, 2015 issued the first Look Out Circular (LOC) for Vijay Mallya to the Mumbai Police, stating “prevent subject from leaving India.” In November 2015, CBI issued a fresh LOC to the police, this time, changing the detention of Mallya to mere “inform originator of arrival/departure of subject.”

Last week, CBI defended its action and said that downgrading Mallya’s LOC was an “error of judgment.” The agency also issued a statement saying “the decision to change the LOC against Vijay Mallya was taken because at the time there wasn’t sufficient ground for the CBI to detain and arrest him.”

However, according to The Indian Express investigation, CBI had actually written to the Mumbai Police that the first LOC, which ordered Mallya’s detention, was an “error”.

Timeline Of Events

In October 2016, CBI issued an LOC for liquor baron Vijay Mallya, checking the box for “prevent subject from leaving India.”

On the morning of November 23, 2015 an alert sounded by Immigration authorities, activated through the Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS), was sent to the CBI. It informed that Mallya will be landing in New Delhi on November 24.

Interestingly, on November 24, CBI wrote a lengthy letter to the Mumbai Police stating that the “detention of the subject at this stage is not required by us” and check the box to “inform originator of arrival/departure of subject.”

On February 28, 2016, Mallya’s lenders, State Bank of India (SBI) was advised by advocate Dushyant Dave to move the Supreme Court the very next day restraining Mallya’s exit from the country.

Also Read: Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave Advised SBI-Move SC To Stop Mallya From Fleeing. First, SBI Disappeared, & Then, Mallya.

However, the SBI legal team did not appear in court the next morning at all. The next day, on March 2, 2016, Mallya fled the country.

The Letter

The letter, in which the CBI told Mumbai Police not to detain Mallya, was accessed by The Indian Express. It was signed by CBI’s then SP in Mumbai, Harshita Attaluri, and is marked to Mumbai IPS officer Aswati Dorje.

The letter read, “While establishing the LOC, our request as to be informed about the arrival/departure of the subject from India and in the annexure enclosed with the LOC, the reference to detention of the subject was made under the impression that advance information about the arrival of the subject may not be available with immigration authorities and therefore, in case the accused checks in at the immigration post for arrival/departure, the information would be furnished to us only at that point. Therefore we had mentioned that the subject may be detained.”

Informing about the ‘downgrading’ of Mallya’s notice, the agency wrote, “However, had it been known at that point that advance information is also available in your data-base/records, we would have phrased the annexure differently. We request you to inform the advance arrival/departure of the subject discreetly. Detention of the subject at this stage is not required by us…”