The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued fresh summons to Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister
P Chidambaram, to appear on February 15 in connection with the INX Media money laundering case. Karti had skipped the February 2 appearance claiming that as he had challenged the summons before the Supreme Court the ED should wait for the outcome. On January 18, first time Karti appeared before the ED and was grilled for more than 11 hours.
Meanwhile, co-accused Indrani Mukhejea, former promoter of INX Media, has allegedly admitted to the CBI and the ED that she had paid around Rs 5 crore to Karti for the FIPB clearances. As per the CBI and ED FIRs, in 2006, INX Media got only FIPB clearance of Rs 5 crore as foreign investments. But the TV channel had illegally brought more than Rs 305 crore from Mauritius registered companies in dubious way. The Income Tax found the irregularity and issued notice to Indrani and husband Peter Mukherjea. To save from Income Tax action, the duo approached Karti.
Chidambaram, as head of FIPB, illegally gave post facto clearance to the INX Media and Karti's firm's Chess Management Services and Advantage Strategic Consulting got the kickback of around Rs 5 crore, said the chargesheets.
The INX media scam was unearthed by the joint raid of ED and Income Tax in December 2015 at Karti's companies in connection with Aircel-Maxis scam.
The investigators seized the hard disks from Karti's firms, unearthing the family's properties and hotels and farm houses in 14 countries and 21 undeclared foreign bank accounts.