Teams of the CBI and the ED reached the Jorbagh residence of former Union Minister P. Chidambaram on August 21 to arrest him in the INX Media case, soon after the Delhi High Court rejected his application for anticipatory bail . However, he was not there. Late at night, the CBI pasted a notice on the wall outside Mr. P. Chidambaram’s house, asking him to appear before the probe team within two hours of the receipt of summons.
The agency is also learnt to have sent the summons through email.
Hours after the ruling, the CBI officials went to his house around 6.45 p.m. They left soon after confirming that he was not home.
Another team, from the ED, entered the premises around 7.30 p.m. and remained inside for a long time.
“We are looking for Mr. Chidambaram at various locations. His mobile phone is also unreachable,” said an official.
The CBI notice pasted outside former Union Minister P. Chidambaram’s residence in New Delhi on August 20, 2019. Photo: Special Arrangement
In February 2018, the CBI had arrested the former Union Minister’s son Karti on allegations that he had demanded and accepted $1 million for scuttling a proposed probe against INX Media on suspected violation of FIPB conditions in 2007.
Mr. Karti Chidambaram, who was later released on bail, had then alleged that the charges against him were politically motivated.
The arrest was made after INX Media’s former director Indrani Mukerjea gave a statement to the CBI that Mr. Karti Chidambaram had allegedly demanded and accepted the amount. She later turned an approver.
The CBI registered the FIR in May 2017 , against Mr. Karti Chidambaram, his previous company Chess Management Services and another firm Advantage Strategic Consulting that he allegedly controlled; and INX Media and its arm INX News, earlier represented by Indrani and her husband Peter Mukerjea as directors.
The FIR had initially mentioned only ₹10 lakh as the alleged quid quo pro.
The agency alleged that Mr. Karti Chidambaram exercised his influence over FIPB officials to help INX Media evade the probe into an alleged unapproved 26% down-streaming of foreign investments in INX News, received from three Mauritius-based firms.
INX Media had got FIPB clearance for ₹4.62-crore influx, but received ₹305 crore by selling its shares at ₹800 per unit.
Based on the CBI case, the ED also launched a money laundering probe. In October 2018, it attached properties worth ₹54 crore of Mr. Karti Chidambaram and a private company in India, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The attachments also included assets belonging to Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL), as alleged.
The ED had earlier alleged that “for FIPB approval, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea met [the then] Finance Minister P. Chidambaram so that there was no hold up or delay in their application”. Mr. P. Chidambaram had then denied the allegations.
