Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram is being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate at the probe agency’s office in the capital after he was summoned in connection with the INX Media case.
Last month, the Delhi High Court had given Chidambaram protection from arrest till January 15.
The central probe agency had earlier questioned Chidambaram’s son Karti in this case and has also attached his assets worth an estimated Rs. 54 crore, located in India and abroad.
He was asked to depose before the investigating officer of the case to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), news agency PTI quoted official sources as saying.
The role of Chidambaram, 73, had come under the scanner of various investigating agencies in the Rs. 3,500-crore Aircel-Maxis deal and the INX Media case involving Rs. 305 crore. It was during his tenure as finance minister in the UPA-I government that clearances from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) were given to the two ventures.
The Enforcement Directorate and the CBI are probing how Chidambaram’s son Karti managed to get clearance from FIPB. Alleging irregularities in clearances given to INX Media, the agency had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the equivalent of a police First Information Report, against the accused named in a CBI complaint, including Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its former owners Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.
Karti Chidambaram was arrested in February by the CBI for allegedly taking money to facilitate the FIPB clearance to INX Media. He was released on bail later.
–India Legal Bureau