New Delhi : It's an "undeniable fact" that Vijay Mallya told Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament that he was leaving for London, Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy said today.

Another such fact, according to Swamy: That a lookout notice was "diluted on [October] 24, 2015 from 'Block' to 'Report' departure, enabling Mallya to depart with 54 checked luggage items".

Swamy said he learned from "sources" that the lookout notice was downgraded on the orders of "someone" in the Ministry of Finance. 

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi asked why Swamy was just tweeting, and said he was duty-bound to "reveal and report".

'NO POINT TALKING TO ME'

Yesterday, Mallya told reporters in London that he met Jaitley before he left India. The former liquor baron later said he never met Jaitley formally.

Jaitley, on his part, said Mallya used his privilege as a Rajya Sabha member and accosted him in the corridor of Parliament.

"He paced up to catch up with me and while walking uttered a sentence that 'I am making an offer of settlement'," he said. "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'."

"I did not even receive the papers that he was holding in his hand."

PL Punia, a Congress party spokesperon, said Jaitley was "lying". "I saw him having [a] prolonged meeting in Central Hall of Parliament about two days before he [Mallya] was allowed to escape from India," he said.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi said Mallya's "allegations" were "extremely serious".

"The PM should immediately order an independent probe into the matter. Arun Jaitley should step down as finance Minister while this probe is underway," he tweeted.

courtesy : indiatoday.in

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Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.

A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".

"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.

"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.

Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.

The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.

In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.

Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.