Karti Chidambaram arrested in inx Media case

Chennai/New Delhi: Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, was arrested on Wednesday by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the Chennai airport in connection with its probe in the INX media case, officials in Delhi said. He has been taken to a Delhi court, which has sent him for one-day police custody.

The CBI, which sought 15 days’ custody of Karti, told the court of metropolitan judge Sumit Anand that he was arrested because he had not cooperated with investigators. “Karti Chidambaram is evasive in his replies…He made incorrect statements with respect to evidence. All this delays conclusion of investigation,” the CBI said. The court has also allowed his advocates to interact with him for 10 minutes inside the courtroom.

Karti, 46, was placed under arrest by a CBI team on his return from London. He was put on a Delhi-bound flight and brought to the agency headquarters, where the CBI completed necessary formalities, including a medical test before producing him before a designated CBI court in Delhi in the evening.

The agency did not produce him before a local magistrate in Chennai for his transit remand since the probe agency has an all-India jurisdiction.The CBI had registered an FIR on 15 May last year against alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

It is alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, they said. The CBI alleged Karti also received money from INX media to scuttle a tax probe. The firm was owned at the time by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail on charges of murdering Indrani’s daughter Sheena Bora.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered a money laundering case. The CBI and the ED had carried out a series of raids on the houses and offices owned by the Chidambarams.

Karti Chidambaram was questioned several times by the ED. A lookout notice, which prevents a passenger from travelling abroad, was issued against him as the agencies suspected that he would try to close foreign accounts where he had parked the money from the kickbacks.

In November, the Supreme Court allowed Karti Chidambaram to go to the UK for his daughter’s admission in the Cambridge University. His father was not available for comments, but he had earlier denied involvement of his son in any case.

The Congress labelled his arrest as “vendetta” and “diversionary tactic” by the Modi government to hide its scams and “mal-governance”. Karti Chidambaram’s arrest would not deter the party from speaking the truth to hold the government accountable, the party’s communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said.

The CBI is also probing the alleged irregularities in grant of the FIPB clearance to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006. According to the CBI, INX Media clearly states in its records that Rs10 lakh was given to Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm “indirectly” owned by Karti, for management consultancy charged towards FIPB notification and clarification.

The FIR also alleges that invoices of approximately Rs3.5 crore were raised in favour of INX group in the name of other companies in which Karti had substantial interests “directly or indirectly”.