Chidambaram appears before ED for first time, quizzed for 6 hours

NEW DELHI: In his first appearance before the enforcement directorate on Tuesday, former finance minister P Chidambaram was grilled by investigating officers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for more than six hours at its Delhi office in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case.

The agency has already questioned his son Karti multiple times in connection with alleged pay-offs received in firms linked to him from the Aircel-Maxis group companies. The former FM was first summoned by the agency for questioning in this case on May 30. However, his lawyers had sought more time and accordingly June 5 was fixed as the next date.

Coming out of the ED office, Chidambaram, who has already secured from a Delhi court interim protection from arrest by ED till July 10, tweeted: “The questions were about what is already recorded in the file. Hence, answers too were what is recorded in the file.” He went on to say that there is “no FIR, no offence alleged yet there is an investigation”.

Chidambaram's statements were recorded by the investigating officers and read out to him before taking his signatures on them. He is also likely to be questioned by CBI on Wednesday in another case of foreign direct investment (FDI) approval and alleged pay-offs to companies linked to his son in the INX-Media deal. The ED has also been probing the INX-Media deal and has already questioned Karti Chidambaram. The former FM is also likely to be questioned in the INX-Media case after his probe is over in the Aircel-Maxis.

The ED's line of investigation on which Chidambaram was questioned relates to his role as the then FM in granting foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) approval (in 2006) of Rs 3,500 crore in the Aircel Ltd as “being an investment of Rs 180 crore only”, thus skipping mandatory approval of the cabinet committee on economic affairs.

Earlier this year, the ED filed an affidavit in Supreme Court on its status report on the Aircel-Maxis case where the agency claimed that barely 20 days after granting approval to Aircel, Rs 26 lakh was paid by ATVL (seller of the equity shares of Aircel Ltd to Maxis) on April 11, 2006 to a Chennai-based company, Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL).

“The payment to ASCPL was in close proximity to the FIPB approval on March 20, 2006 and investigation revealed that ASCPL was controlled by Karti Chidambaram, son of P Chidambaram, the then FM who had accorded FIPB approval to the Aircel-Maxis FDI, even though it was not within his powers and was in the competence of CCEA,” the ED had claimed.

The agency further claimed in its affidavit that documents and other evidences seized during various searches conducted on Karti Chidambaram and his associates and companies “show that Karti P Chidambaram controlled the affairs of the companies in question through S Bhaskararaman and that the Advantage Consulting Services (ACS) and ASCPL were set up in the name of the wife and brother-in-law of S Bhaskararaman for receiving illegal gratification by Karti Chidambaram for approvals in the ministry of finance.”