CBI has been pressured to file a charge sheet to support a preposterous allegation against me and officers with a s… https://t.co/zJEu9sEEiN — P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) 1532001418000

CBI

NEW DELHI: CBI has named P Chidambaram and his son Karti in a fresh chargesheet filed in Aircel Maxis case in Delhi's Patiala House Court.Reacting to the CBI chargesheet, Chidambaram dismissed the charges against him as "preposterous allegation".In its new chargesheet, the investigating agency said that two sets of money trails were discovered regarding Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance.Two illegal payments Rs 26 lakh and Rs 87 lakh were given to Karti’s firms - Chess Management and Advantage Strategic during the Aircel-Maxis deal, the agency said.The CBI alleged that for FIPB approval; then finance minister P Chidambaram had powers to clear only Rs 600 crore and it was shown on the file that Rs 180 crore (18 crore shares @Rs 100 each) but Maxis paid Rs 3,200 crore for taking over Aircel.P Chidambaram, as FM, approved the investment at his level without sending the file to CCEA. He knew everything from the beginning, the agency said.Sixteen other people, including government officials — both serving and retired, were also named in the chargesheet. The chargesheet was filed before specialjudge O P Saini who has fixed July 31 for considering the document.The other sixteen people named in the chargesheet are Malaysian media mogul T Ananda Krishnan, Ralph Marshall, former union secretary economic affairs Ashok Kumar Jha, then additional secretary Ashok Chawla, two serving IAS officers - joint secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna and director Deepak Kumar Singh, an under secretary Ram Sharan, S Bhaskaraman, A Palaniappam, V Srinivasan, and companies - Chess Management, Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd, Astro All Asia Networks, Maxis Mobile Malaysia, Bumi Armada Berhad (Malaysia) and Bumi Armada Navigations (Malaysia).Congress leader Kapil Sibal said that the latest attempts by CBI to frame his party's leader will meet the same fate as that of earlier chargesheets filed by the agency."What do you expect from this government and the CBI. It'll meet the same fate as other chargesheets of the CBI. Remember what happened to the 2G case, it all resulted in acquittement. Same thing will happen here," Sibal said.In December last year, a CBI court had acquitted all the accused, including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi, of corruption and money laundering charges in the 2G corruption case.The Aircel-Maxis deal case, which emerged out of 2G spectrum cases, pertains to a grant by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to firm M/S Global Communication Holding Services Ltd for investment in Aircel.Karti Chidambaram was already an accused in the case. On June 13, in a 4,500-page separate chargesheet filed by the ED in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case registered Karti and several other people were named as accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.The senior Congress leader’s role had come under the scanner of investigating agencies in the Aircel-Maxis deal of Rs. 3,500 crore and INX Media case involving Rs. 305 crore.It was during his tenure as the finance minister in the UPA-I government that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) granted clearance to the two ventures in which alleged irregularities have been found.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier said that the FIPB approval granted in 2006 by Chidambaram was beyond his mandate as he was only authorized to accord approval on project proposals up to Rs 600 crore.P. Chidambaram's son Karti was arrested on February 28 at the Chennai airport upon his return from the United Kingdom, for his alleged role in the case. Currently, Karti is out on bail.In August 2014, the investigating agency had chargesheeted the then telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, Maxis' owner T Ananda Krishnan besides Maran's brother and chairman of Sun Network Kalamithi Maran among others. Today, the former finance minister and his son were named in the supplementary chargesheet filed the investigating agency.