The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday questioned former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case for the fourth time, officials said.
Mr. Chidambaram arrived at the ED’s office in New Delhi early in the day and his statement would be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The senior Congress leader was last questioned for about six hours on August 24.
Some specific queries on the circumstances and procedures adopted by the now defunct Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) are being put to him during these sessions, it is learnt.
Mr. Chidambaram’s son Karti had been questioned twice by the ED in this case.
While the CBI has filed a charge sheet in this case involving the politician in July, the ED is expected to file its own prosecution complaint within the next fortnight.
After similar questioning by the ED in this case in June, Mr. Chidambaram had said what he told it was already recorded in government documents. He also said a probe was initiated even though there was no FIR.
“More than half the time taken up by typing the answers without errors, reading the statement and signing it!,” he said in a tweet.
The Aircel-Maxis case pertains to grant of FIPB clearance to M/S Global Communication Holding Services Ltd in 2006 for investment in Aircel.
SC deadline for concluding 2G, Aircel cases
The Supreme Court, on March 12, directed the CBI and the ED to complete their probe into the 2G spectrum allocation cases, including the Aircel Maxis alleged money laundering case, in six months.
The ED had said FIPB approval in the Aircel-Maxis FDI case was granted in March 2006 by Mr. Chidambaram even though he was competent to accord approval on project proposals only up to Rs 600 crore, and beyond that it required the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
The ED is investigating “the circumstances of the FIPB approval granted (in 2006) by the then finance minister”.
The ED said “In the instant case, the approval for FDI of USD 800 million [over Rs 3,500 crore] was sought. Hence, the CCEA was competent to grant the approval. However, the approval was not obtained from the CCEA.”
The ED said the said FDI was “wrongly projected as an investment of ₹180 crore so that it need not be sent to the the CCEA to avoid a detailed scrutiny”.
Mr. Chidambaram had described the ED action in this case as a “crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures” and said the charge sheet filed by the probe agencies had been rejected by the court.
However, the probe agencies maintained that the FIR in the case had not been quashed.
In September last, the ED attached assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of Karti and a firm allegedly linked to him in connection with this case.
