Cbi raids on karti chidambaram plot decoded and some unanswered questions

CBI raids on Karti Chidambaram: Plot decoded and some unanswered questions

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday raided 16 properties linked to Karti P Chidambaram, son of former

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Gurugram. The raids are related to foreign investment clearances approved by the Centre’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board to media firms in 2007 during the United Progressive Alliance rule.

The First Information Report, which facilitated the raids, was filed in Delhi on Monday. The firms under scanner, INX Media Private Limited and INX News Private Limited, had Indrani Mukherjea and Peter Mukherjea as former directors. The two are currently in prison on charges of killing their daughter Sheena Bora in April 2012. Their bunglow in Mumbai was also raided.

Apart from the three, the FIR names Padma Vishwanathan as director of Advantage Strategic Consulting, “unknown officials” of the Ministry of Finance and “other unknown persons”. Chess Management Services, a firm in which Karti Chidambaram was a director during the alleged transactions, also finds a mention.

Officials aiding the CBI in the raids in Chennai said the FIR was the result of “three months” of investigation into the alleged transactions, which emerged during the “review of material” recovered from Indrani Mukherjea in the course of the probe into the Sheena Bora murder case.

The case is primarily based on two alleged illegalities: The media firm obtained foreign funding multiple times higher than what was allowed and redistributed it to another firm for which it did not have approval.  And that it used Karti Chidambaram’s links with his father to post facto clear these inherently illegal transactions.

Both the father and the son denied the allegations. P Chidambaram alleged that the Centre was targeting his son to silence his voice. 

The plot The Foreign Investment Promotion Board is an “inter-ministerial body, responsible for processing Foreign Direct Investment proposals and making recommendations for government approval”.

According to the FIR, INX Media approached the Board for foreign investment clearances on March 13, 2007. The investment was to be raised through allotment of shares to three companies – Dunearn Investments (Mauritius) Private Limited, NSR-PE Mauritius Private Limited and New Vernon Private Equity Limited. The shares were to be issued at a face value of Rs 10 each.

The foreign funding was sought to promote and run television channels in both English and regional languages.

In the application, INX Media also expressed its intention to allot 26% of the investment raised to INX News Private Limited and sought permission for the same.

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