Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram’s son, Karti Chidambaram is currently being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in Jamnagar House in Delhi. He is being probed in connection to money laundering case in the INX Media scam. Both father-son duo is facing heat from the CBI as well as ED in the INX media scam.
In January, the CBI had sought the custody of former union minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media. Karti was arrested by CBI in February last in connection with the case, who was released on bail later.
It is alleged that INX Media received FDI in excess of what was allowed and when a probe was launched against the illegal investment, it was manipulated to save the company. P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister in the UPA government at that time. The chargesheet filed by CBI in the case said that while the company was granted clearance to receive foreign investment of only ₹4.62 crore, the company violated the norms and raised ₹305 crores as FDI. On the other hand, INX Media had made payments to Advantage Strategic Consultancy Pvt Ltd, a company owned by Karti Chidambaram through his close associates.
It is alleged that Karti had received ₹3.5 crore from INX Media and used his influence to manipulate the investigation against the company.
INX Media was later known as NewsX, it was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea of the sensational Sheena Bora murder case. Indrani had also alleged that P Chidambaram had asked her to pay a bribe of $1 million to Karti Chidambaram.
CBI had sought custodial interrogation of P Chidambaram in the case earlier also, but it was not granted. The agency has got the government’s permission to prosecute the former union minister in the Aircel-Maxis case also.
Since yesterday, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s husband and Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s brother in law Robert Vadra is also being grilled by the ED in dubious land deals and in connection with another money laundering case. He is also asked to appear before the ED in Jaipur on February 12.