P Chidambaram Arrested in INX Media Case
Ex-Finance Minister P Chidambaram has been arrested and named the Kingpin in the money laundering case against INX Media.
The INX Media is a company owned by Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) is a Government Board. If any company in India wants Foreign Investment (in their company the have to get permission from this Board. INX Media approached the Board and asked permission to sell shares to three investors based in Mauritius. The Board allowed INX Media to only sell shares worth Rs 4.62 crore. The company ignored the Board and broke the rules. Between 2007 and 2008, they sold shares worth Rs 305 crore to Foreign Investors. Each share was sold at Rs 862.31, this was 86 times more than its original price. In January 2008, the Finance Ministry discovered the irregularities in cash flow into INX Media. As it involved foreign funds, the Income Tax department forwarded the case to the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Chidambaram was the finance minister in 2007. This is why the ED started investigating why the FIPB not investigate these irregularities. The FIPB simply told INX Media to apply for a fresh request for the Foreign Investment they already received.Indrani Mukerjea also said that after she met P Chidambaram, She got a better deal. This made the CBI’s case even stronger. Karti, P. Chidambaram's son, allegedly used his influence and accepted bribes, to solve INX Media’s problem. The CBI filed an FIR against the company in May 2017. The ED subsequently filed money laundering case against INX Media and related parties in 2018.
In their FIR the CBI said that, to stop the investigation and settle the matter in a friendly manner with the finance ministry, INX Media asked Karti's Chess Management Service Pvt. Ltd. INX Media had paid Karti Rs 10 lakh. The CBI found these details during its searches at the homes and offices of Karti. The CBI also say that PC knew all about this. According to the ED, profits from this crime helped Karti buy property and assets worth Rs 54 crore in India and abroad.
Karti was arrested by the CBI in February last year in connection with the INX Media case but was released on bail in March.In March 2018, Indrani Mukerjea told the CBI that a deal of $1 million was struck between Karti and the Mukerjeas to secure approval from the FIPB in favour of INX Media.This case has been going on for a while now. In May 2018, the Delhi High Court offered to temporarily postpone his punishment. However On 20th August P Chidarambaram was declared as the main person who planned and the entire crime. His request for bail was rejected by the Delhi High Court. When the CBI and the ED, went to arrest him at his residence on Tuesday evening, he was missing. On Wednesday again his lawyers requested the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing for protection from arrest. This was also rejected by the SC.
He was missing for a long time. He then appeared at the AICC (All India Congress Committee) Headquarters to talk to the media. When the CBI team arrived at the Congress office, Chidambaram somehow managed to leave. He was then seen entering his house. Yesterday night at 9:00 pm the CBI reached PC’s home. There was a huge crowd of media and his supported. The CBI along with the Delhi Police, climbed over the closed gates of the house and arrested him. The Congress party has said that they are fully supporting PC. They said that the BJP government was misusing their power and that the government has made PC a scapegoat to avoid exposing the government’s failures. PC’s legal team is going to appeal in the SC for his bail in the coming week.
