P Chidambaram Questioned By Enforcement Directorate In Aircel-Maxis Case

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Senior Congress leader P Chidamabaram has been questioned in the probe for the fourth time
case for the fourth time, officials said.Mr Chidambaram arrived at the agency's office early in the day, they said, adding that his
statement will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).This is the fourth time the senior Congress leader is being
questioned in the probe
He was last grilled 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 the former Union minister during these sessions, it is learnt.Mr Chidambaram's
son Karti has 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
He also said a probe was initiated even though there is no FIR."More than half the time taken up by typing the answers without errors,
reading the statement and signing it!," he had said in his tweet.The Aircel-Maxis cases pertains to grant of Foreign Investment Promotion
Board clearance to the firm M/S Global Communication Holding Services Ltd in 2006 for investment in Aircel.The Supreme Court had on March 12
directed investigating agencies -- 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 agency 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"."In the instant case, the approval for FDI of $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 had alleged.The agency
said its probe that the case of the said FDI was "wrongly projected as an investment of Rs 180 crore so that it need not be sent to the CCEA
to avoid a detailed scrutiny".The ED is probing the Aircel-Maxis deal under the PMLA after taking cognisance of a 2011 CBI FIR in the
case.The Mr Chidambaram had earlier described the ED action in this case as a "crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures" and said the
charge sheet filed by probe agencies was rejected by the court.However, the agencies maintained that the FIR in the case had not been
quashed.In September last year, the ED had attached assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of Karti and a firm allegedly linked to him in connection
with this case.