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New Delhi: Hearing the Aircel-Maxis case, Delhi’s Patiala House Court on Monday extended the interim protection of former minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti till March 8. (Also read: Chidambaram Hits Back at PM Modi For ‘Recounting’ Minister Jibe)
The court has been extending the interim protection of the two for months now. Special CBI Judge O P Saini had previously posted the matter for February 1 after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the CBI, sought more time from the court stating that the ongoing probe was nearing completion.
The Aircel-Maxis case emerged out of the 2G spectrum cases, pertaining to an approval granted to a Mauritius-based firm by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for investment in Aircel.
The FIPB approval was allegedly granted in 2006 when Chidambaram was Finance Minister. According to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy, he was only empowered to give approval to proposals involving foreign investment amount of up to Rs 600 crore.
However, he had reportedly approved the foreign investment proposal of the Mauritius firm worth Rs 3,560 crore approximately.
Meanwhile, Karti has been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money-laundering probe against him in the INX Media case. Officials said Karti was summoned to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He was grilled a number of times in the case in the past.
The ED had attached Karti’s assets worth an estimated Rs 54 crore, located in India and abroad, in the case last year. The central probe agency had registered the PMLA case on the basis of a CBI FIR and had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007, when Chidambaram was the Finance Minister.
It had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report, the ED’s equivalent to a police FIR, against the accused named in the CBI complaint, including Karti, INX Media and its directors — Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.
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