The CBI on Wednesday interrogated former Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti for more than eight hours and asked him to appear again on August 28.
According to sources, Karti was cornered with bank transaction papers of kickbacks received by his companies from INX Media for illegal FIPB clearance given by his father Chidambaram in 2007. Over 100 questions on various aspects of the case were drafted by investigators which were put to the 45-year-old Karti, the sources said
Karti, who arrived at the agency headquarters on the directives of the Supreme Court around 10.20 AM, was allowed to leave the office after 7pm. He came with an advocate from Chennai. Karti is also expected to be confronted with INX Media owners Peter Mukherjea and Indrani, presently lodged in Mumbai jail in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case.
According to CBI officers, Karti did not co-operate with them and did not give clear answers to the questions of fund flow to his firms like Chess Management Services and Advantage Strategic Consulting. Other Directors in his firm will also be questioned. CBN Reddy, Ravi Viswanath, Mohanan Rajesh and Bhaskararaman are the other Directors in Karti linked firms.
In the coming days officials of Enforcement Directorate are also expected to join the probe.
The CBI examined him in connection with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to INX Media for receiving funds from Mauritius when his father Chidambaram was the Union Finance Minister. After questioning Karti and Directors in his companies, CBI is expected to summon Chidambaram and senior officials involved in the dubious FIPB clearance.
The CBI had issued a notice to Karti to appear for questioning in June but he had sought more time. later, a lookout circular was also issued against him to prevent him from leaving the country. Karti had then approached the Madras High Court which stayed the circular. The Supreme Court later put on hold the high court order. During a hearing before the apex court, Karti had told the court he was willing to appear before the CBI. The court then directed him to appear on August 23.
CBI's FIR accused Karti of accepting around Rs 5 crore as kickback from the illegal FIPB approval granted to INX Media by father Chidambaram in 2007. INX Media earlier got approval for Rs 5 crore worth of foreign investment. But the Income Tax authorities found that they illegally received Rs 305 crore following which notice was issued to them.
After getting the notice, the INX media owners met Karti and got a dubious post facto clearance from father Chidambaram-headed FIPB.