CBI dismissed the charges Rahul Made against its officer

The CBI on Saturday dismissed the allegations made against it by Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s in the Vijay Mallya case as baseless.

“As has been stated a number of times earlier, the decision to change the Look-out Circular (LoC) against Vijay Mallya was taken because at the time there was not sufficient grounds for the CBI to detain and arrest him,” said the CBI in response to media queries.

Through his Twitter handle, Mr. Gandhi had accused the CBI of having quietly aided Mr. Mallya’s escape by downgrading the LoC against him. He also held the then Joint Director, A.K. Sharma, a Gujarat cadre official, responsible for the change in LoC.

The CBI, in response, said the decision was taken at the appropriate level as part of the process and not individually by the officer as alleged.

The CBI said that it received complaint against diamond merchants Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi from the Punjab National Bank almost a month after they left the country.

“Therefore, the question of any CBI officer having any hand in their fleeing the country does not arise. Prompt action was taken by the CBI in the case after the complaint was received from the bank,” the premier investigating agency said.

At the time the case against Mr. Nirav Modi and Mr. Mehul Choksi was instituted, Mr. Sharma was not the supervisory officer.