The Enforcement Directorate has submitted a charge sheet against senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, their chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman and others in connection with its money laundering probe related to INX Media.
The ED has listed down the investments made by the ‘Chidambarams’ and stated that their investment grew nearly ten times from Rs 6.5 crores to Rs 65.9 crores in a couple of months.
“INX Media Pvt Ltd had made payments of Rs 6.5 crore, detected till date, to several shell companies of Karti P Chidambaram in India and outside India. The first illegal gratification of Rs 3 crore was made through Span Fibre and Satyam Fibre to ASCPL, Kriya and CBNPMC, the companies, beneficially owned by Karti as part of P Chidambaram’s direction,” the charge-sheet noted.
The charge sheet submitted also mentioned that P Chidambaram allegedly asked the INX media promoters to help his son’s business interest. The central probe agency clearly mentioned that the 75-year-old Congress leader was “very much involved” with his son in the process of money laundering.
The ED claimed that the payments from INX Media were made during 2007-08 and the first instalment of the “illegal gratification” received from INX Media, Karti’s firm Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Limited (ASCPL), invested Rs 1.5 crore in purchasing 1.5 lakh shares of Vasan Health Care. Later, ASCPL sold 30,000 shares of Vasan Health Care to Sequoia (SCI-GIH) for Rs 22.2 crore, while another 36,245 shares were sold to Vasan Medical Hall for Rs 18.6 crore.
The accused gained a income of Rs 29.4 crore through the proceeds of sales, generating a profit of Rs 18.4 crore, the ED claimed
The special court has summoned Chidambaram and his son to be present in court on April 7 when charges will be framed. However, Chidambaram and his son have already refuted the allegations against them.
The agencies had earlier alleged that bribes were paid to get an approval for foreign investments of ₹403 crore in INX Media from three Mauritius-based entities in 2007. Former INX Media director Indrani Mukerjea and her husband Peter Mukerjea, also the then director, were made accused in the case.
Mr. Chidambaram was first arrested by the CBI on August 21 last year. The ED then took him into custody in October 2019 for recording his statement in the money laundering case. Subsequently, he was released on bail.
