The Enforcement Directorate on Friday questioned former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram for about six hours in connection with a money laundering probe into the alleged irregularities in the aviation sector during the UPA era.
Chidambaram's statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) even as he was grilled for six hours at one of the ED's offices here.
Chidambaram was first summoned by the agency in this case on August 23 last year but at that time he was under CBI custody after being arrested in the INX Media corruption case.
The latest investigation relates to losses suffered by Air India due to an alleged multi-crore aviation scam and irregularities in fixing air slots for international airlines.
The Enforcement Directorate probe in this case also covers the purchase of over 110 aircraft in 2006, costing about Rs 70,000 crore, for public sector carrier Air India.
The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) had in 2011 questioned the rationale behind the Government's decision to purchase the passenger aircraft.
Former aviation minister Praful Patel has been grilled by the ED in connection with these decisions. Following this, the agency questioned Chidambaram on some leads it obtained in the case during Patel's quizzing, officials said.
Chidambaram was heading an empowered Group of Ministers for these deals and his questioning was necessary to unravel the decision-making process undertaken by the UPA Government for these controversial decisions, officials said.
Chidambaram came out of jail early December last year after over 100 days in CBI and ED custody in the INX Media case. He was released only after the Supreme Court granted him bail.
Chidambaram is also being probed by ED in a third case of money laundering related to the Aircel-Maxis deal. The ED had questioned him in this case earlier.
Chidambaram had earlier described the ED action in the Aircel-Maxis case as a "crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures".