Can't have different jail for Mallya: Rahul Gandhi

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday commented on the controversy over condition of Indian jails, particularly the one where liquor baron Vijay Mallya will be lodged after his extradition and said that "justice should be same for all Indian people and Mallya can't have a different jail".

Interacting with Indian Journalists Association in London, Gandhi said, "Justice should be same for all Indian people, it shouldn't be that just because you are Mallya and have 9,000 crores in the bank, you require a different jail than other people in India."

In his elaborate reply, the Congress chief also made an attack on Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and hinted towards an apparent shielding of fugitive business persons including Mallya and diamantaire Nirav Modi.

"Before leaving India Vijay Mallya met some of the senior BJP leaders and it is documented. I won't take names but he did meet them. So they are pretty lenient to these people. Nirav Modi took 45, 000 crores, Mehul Chouski took off from India. There is a relationship between Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and these relationships come in the middle of justice."

He also questioned the basis of imparting huge sums as loans to these absconding businessmen and said, "The real question is when we talk about job creation. Indian banks gave 35,000 crores to Nirav Modi. Narendra Modi let him run away from India. How many jobs did Nirav create and on what basis he was given such big sums? That's the same exact thing for Vijay Mallya. I think Indian prison were pretty suited places for Mallya".

Mallya, who is under fire over financial fraud and money laundering, left India on March 2, 2016. The businessman owes Rs 9,000 crore to several Indian banks.

Nirav Modi, who is at the centre of multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam absconded in early 2018. In July, the Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice against him.