The Centre has granted sanction to prosecute five officers including former bureaucrats, who are co-accused with former Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis probe, the CBI on Friday informed the 2G court. The CBI also filed chargesheet in a Kolkata court against Chidambaram’s wife Nalini in Saradha scam for accepting bribes of Rs 1.40 crore from the chit fund owner Sudipto Sen.
The Sanction Prosecution request of CBI was pending in the Finance Ministry for the past six months. The co-accused officers with Chidambaram and son Karti are former Finance Secretaries Ashok Jha and Ashok Chawla and two serving IAS officers Kumar Sanjay Krishnan (Assam Cadre), Deepak Kumar Singh (Bihar Cadre) and retired Under Secretary Ram Saran.
Ashok Chawla has resigned. The CBI in the chargesheet accused these officers, then working in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), of illegally approving the foreign investment clearance to Malaysian firm Maxis to acquire mobile phone operator Aircel. Ashok Chawla is currently Chairman of National Stock Exchange (NSE). Chidambaram’s lawyers Kapil Sibal and Abhisehk Singhvi argued against the CBI’s demand for custodial interrogation of Chidambaram. The Special Public Prosecutor Tushar Mehta said that the agency needed custodial interrogation of the former Finance Minister in the light of new evidences procured.
The submissions were made before Special Judge OP Saini who extended till February 1 the interim protection from arrest granted to Chidambaram and Karti in the Aircel-Maxis cases filed by the CBI and the ED.
Meanwhile, in the evening in another embarrassment to Chidambaram, wife Nalini was chargesheeted by the CBI in the Saradha chit fund case, for accepting a bribe of Rs 1.40 crore.
The chargesheet, which was filed in the special CBI court in the Barasat court in Kolkata, has alleged that “she entered into a criminal conspiracy with Sudipta Sen, the proprietor of the Saradha group, and other accused persons with an intention of cheating and misappropriation of funds of the Saradha group of companies,” a CBI spokesperson in New Delhi said.
The CBI alleged that Manoranjana Sinh, estranged wife of former Union Minister Matang Sinh, introduced Sen to Nalini Chidambaram to manage probes by various agencies like Sebi and RoC against him for which she allegedly received Rs 1.4 crore during 2010-12 through his companies. The chargesheet, the sixth in the Saradha scam, was filed in a special court in Kolkata.
The Saradha group had raised Rs 2,500 crore from people by luring them with attractive interest rates and the borrowed money was not repaid. Sen had closed operations of the company in 2013 after failing to pay returns.
In this chargesheet, Anubhuti Printers and Publications Private Limited and Sen are co-accused along with Nalini Chidambaram, who could not be reached for a comment.