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?