The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday confronted Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, with damning evidence during day-long interrogation in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.
Karti appeared before the investigators by around 11.30 am and the interrogation continued till going to Press.
Earlier on January 18, Karti was interrogated for 11 hours by the ED sleuths. The ED had asked him to again appear on February 2, but he skipped the interrogation by sending a letter to the agency that it should wait for the outcome of his petition in the Supreme Court against the summon notice.
Ignoring this argument, ED asked Karti to appear on Thursday.
The CBI and ED had registered an FIR in the case in June 2017 and also conducted raids against Karti and companies linked to him, Karti kept playing hide and seek with agencies. The CBI issued look Out Circular (lOC) against Karti in October 2017 as he did not appear before the investigators. The Supreme Court ordered Karti to appear before CBI before arguing on the matter.
Meanwhile, co-accused Indrani Mukerjea, the promoter of INX Media, has admitted to the CBI and ED that she had paid around Rs 5 crore to Karti for the getting FIPB clearances.
As per the CBI and ED FIRs, in 2006, INX Media got FIPB clearance for only Rs 5 crore of foreign investments. But the TV channel illegally brought more than Rs 305 crore from Mauritius-registered companies in a dubious way.
Income Tax authorities found the irregularity and issued notice to Indrani and husband Peter Mukerjea.
Chidambaram, as head of FIPB, illegally gave post facto clearance to the INX Media.Karti’s firm’s Chess Management Services and Advantage Strategic Consulting got the kickback of around Rs five crore, said the chargesheets.
The INX media scam was unearthed during the joint raid of ED and Income Tax in December 2015 on Karti’s companies in connection with Aircel-Maxis scam. The investigators seized the hard disks from the Karti’s firms, unearthing details of the family’s properties and hotels and farmhouses in 14 countries and 21 undeclared foreign bank accounts.