INX Media case: CBI takes Karti Chidambaram to Mumbai for joint interrogation with Mukherjeas

The CBI on Sunday took Karti Chidambaram, son of Congress leader P. Chidambaram, for questioning in the INX Media alleged bribery case, an official said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation official told IANS that Karti left for Mumbai at 8 a.m., in an Air India flight.

According to officials, he would be confronted with the Mukherjeas, who are currently lodged in a Mumbai jail.

The CBI wants to collect all evidence against Karti, before his custody is over.

"Karti will be confronted with both of them separately in Mumbai. Karti Chidambaram was brought to Mumbai due to the course of the investigation. Before his custody gets over, the CBI wants to collect all evidence against him," sources told ANI.

The arrest was made in connection with an FIR lodged on May 15 last year, alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Karti's father P Chidambaram was the Union Finance Minister.

The Enforcement Directorate previously alleged that INX Media had deliberately and in violation of the conditions of the approval, made a downstream investment of 26 per cent in the capital of INX News Pvt Ltd without specific approval of FIPB, which included an indirect foreign investment by some foreign investors, and generated Rs 305 crore foreign direct investment in INX Media Pvt Ltd against the approved foreign inflow of Rs 4.62 crore.

To wriggle out of the situation without any punitive action, INX Media entered into a criminal conspiracy with Karti.

The FIPB unit of the finance ministry had not only granted illegal approval but also misinformed the investigation wing of the Income Tax Department, the probing agency further informed.

Karti's Chartered Accountant S Bhaskararaman, also arrested in the same case, will stay in jail till March 7, as a Delhi court on Thursday reserved its order on the former's bail plea. The CA was sent to the jail on February 26 on expiry of his custodial interrogation by the ED, which had arrested him on February 16 from a five-star hotel in New Delhi. 

As per investigating officials, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, the directors of INX Media Limited previously alleged that they paid USD 7 lakh to Karti on the instructions of his father P Chidambaram for an FIPB clearance.

INX Media Case: #KartiChidambaram at Byculla jail in Mumbai; he will be brought face-to-face with Indrani Mukerjea and Peter Mukerjea, separately pic.twitter.com/zqtEn7GNQh

— ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2018

The statements of the Mukerjeas were recorded by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the money laundering angle in the case, while the CBI had only recorded Indrani's statement before a magistrate as per section 164 of the CrPC, they said.

Chidambaram had then asked them to "help the business of his son and make foreign remittances for the purpose," the officials said, quoting the Mukerjeas.

As per sources, now CBI will question the former UPA Finance Minister in connection with the case.

(With Inputs from ENS and Agencies)