Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the second time for a fresh round of questioning pertaining to the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case. Earlier, on 5th June, he had appeared before the country’s premier law enforcement agency to provide justification for decisions taken by him in 2006 while serving as the country’s Finance Minister under the UPA.
An ED official said Chidambaram appeared for questioning at the ED’s office around 11 am. He was summoned to appear on 6 June, a day after the agency questioned him for over five hours. Earlier, a Delhi court had extended the interim protection to him from arrest till 10 July in connection with the case, after directing him to join the probe whenever required. It was the second time when the Congress leader joined the probe.
In 2006, the FIPB gave clearance to M/S Global Communication Holding Services Ltd. to make investments in Aircel to the tune of Rs. 3,500 crore. The ED alleges that Chidambaram was competent to grant approval to projects only up to Rs. 600 crore. Any project exceeding the said monetary limit required the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which was not taken by the then Finance Minister.
The ED, in September 2017, had attached Rs 1.16 crore worth of assets of Karti Chidambaram , who is being probed for allegedly receiving kickbacks in lieu of the FIPB clearance. While Chidambaram claims that the ED’s action in this case is a “crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures”; the agency maintains that the court is taking cognizance of the FIR filed by the CBI.
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