NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram appeared to have a premonition of the arrest of his son Karti when he filed a petition recently in the Supreme Court apprehending continued harassment to him and his family members. Karti was arrested by the CBI on Wednesday on his arrival from London even before Chidambaram s petition could be listed for hearing by the top court. Chidambaram who has been closely monitoring the case of his son in the Supreme Court which is argued by his party colleague and senior advocate Kapil Sibal had sprung a surprise last week by filing a petition on his own accusing the CBI and the ED of carrying out a political vendetta against him and his family. In his petition Chidambaram has sought the apex court s direction prohibiting the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) from continuing their illegal investigations and from acting in any manner causing repeated harassment to him and his family members including his son. However the CBI swung into action by arresting Karti today even before the petition was heard by the top court. In his plea Chidambaram himself a senior advocate has said that the position in the INX Media case was worse as though the CBI had lodged an FIR in May 2017 the probe agencies have not filed any report concluding that any criminal offence had been committed or that any proceeds of crime had arisen out of that criminal offence . An FIR filed by the CBI on May 15 last year had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (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. While the CBI has alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case the ED has also registered a money laundering case in the matter. Chidambaram in his petition before the apex court has said that his fundamental rights were being violated due to illegal investigations being carried out by the CBI and the ED and the central government has been misusing its probe agencies. He has said that being the finance minister then he had granted FIPB approvals in the INX Media case and the Aircel-Maxis case in the normal course of official business . In discharge of his functions he has never allowed any member of his family including his son or any other person to interfere with or influence the conduct of official business . Chidambaram has said that the CBI and ED cannot harass Karti and others who were totally unconnected with the FIPB approval by issuing repeated summons to them. The petitioner (Chidambaram) feels sad that his son and his business friends are being targeted the plea said adding The entire investigation being conducted by the CBI and ED is a total farce and is being made only to malign the name of the petitioner and his son in the eyes of the public . He has also sought the apex court s direction declaring that the proceedings emanating from FIR registered by CBI in the INX Media case as well as the premature investigation being conducted by the ED were without jurisdiction an abuse of authority and violative of Articles 14 (equality before law) 19 (freedom of speech and expression) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution which inhere in the petitioner and the members of his family and declare the said proceedings and investigations as null and void .
Karti Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI today on the basis of confessional statements of INX Media Limited directors Peter and Indrani Mukerjea alleging that they paid USD 7 lakh to him on the instructions of his father P Chidamabaram as quid pro quo for a FIPB clearance officials said. The statements of the Mukerjeas were recorded by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is probing the money laundering angle in the case while the CBI had only recorded Indrani s statement before a magistrate as per section 164 of the CrPC they said. Karti (46) was arrested by the CBI from the Chennai airport on his return from London in connection with the agency s probe in the INX Media case. Both Peter and Indrani had alleged that they met the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram at his North Block office seeking clearance for foreign investments in their media company after the Income Tax department detected irregularities in these instances in 2007. Chidambaram had then asked them to help the business of his son and make foreign remittances for the purpose the officials said quoting from the statements of the Mukerjeas. The couple had also admitted that they subsequently met Karti at a five-star hotel in Delhi where he allegedly made a demand of USD 1 million they said adding that this was reiterated by Indrani before the magistrate as well. Indrani they said had confirmed in her statement to the CBI and ED that a payment of USD 7 lakh was made to the bank accounts of overseas firms linked to Karti. Peter and Indrani facing trial for allegedly killing their daughter Sheena Bora had said in their statement that Karti suggested to them the names of firms such as Chess Management and Advantage Strategic for the payments. The Sheena Bora murder case is being probed by the CBI. INX Media as part of the alleged quid pro quo (a Latin term meaning something for something ) had made a payment of over Rs 9.96 lakh to Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL) a firm allegedly controlled by Karti by a cheque issued on July 15 2008 the officials said. While the invoice issued by ASCPL claimed that the service rendered by it to INX Media was management consultancy the ledger extract sent by the latter to the probe agencies showed that the payment was made for replying towards FIPB notification and clarification they added. The ED they said had seized four invoices of USD 7 lakh drawn by ASCPL its Singapore subsidiary another linked company identified as NorthStar Software Solutions Pvt Ltd and Geben Trading Ltd after it recently raided the offices of Karti and his chartered accountant Bhaskararaman. During the raids the ED had also recovered digital evidence and invoices raised on INX Media Limited sources said. They added that ASCPL had also received payments on behalf of Karti in other cases where money was paid in proximity to approvals given by the Ministry of Finance including from Aircel Televentures Limited for an FIPB approval for the sale of its shares in Aircel Limited to Maxis in March 2006. The Congress said Karti s arrest was vendetta and a diversionary tactic of the BJP-led central government to hide its scams and mal-governance . Party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the government was seeking political vendetta to mask the culture of colossal corruption and cronyism flourishing unchecked and that puppet CBI and ED were being used to divert deflect and distract attention from scams worth Rs 31 691 crore exposed in the last 10 days. The government s mask of a corruption crusader was in shambles with successive scams getting uncovered over the last 45 months and zero action being taken against the fraudsters he added.
Written by Deeptiman Tiwary Abhishek Angad | New Delhi | Updated: March 1 2018 6:47 am Indrani Mukerjea taken to JJ Hospital for a medical check-up. (Express File Phopto: Ganesh Shirsekar) Investigation agencies said the arrest of Karti Chidambaram followed a statement by accused Indrani Mukerjea in which she had alleged that P Chidambaram while he was Union Finance Minister had asked her and her husband Peter Mukerjea to help his son s business. In her statement recorded by the CBI under Section 164 of the CrPC Indrani Mukerjea who is already behind bars in the Sheena Bora murder case alleged that a deal of USD 1 million was struck between Karti and the Mukerjeas to swing FIPB approval in favour of INX Media. While P Chidambaram made no comment Wednesday on his son s arrest or the claims of the CBI his party came to his defence. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal called Karti s arrest malafide and said it was done to harass P Chidambaram. This is complete vendetta politics. This is completely malafide he said. Explained | The decade-old case of INX Media The CBI and Enforcement Directorate also claimed that searches of premises linked to the accused in the case led to discovery of vouchers of payments made by INX Media to companies connected to Karti and to foreign entities which received close to USD 700 000 in Greece and Spain. All vouchers were signed by Peter Mukerjea. According to CBI and ED Indrani and Peter have said in their statements that they met P Chidambaram at his North Block office in connection with FIPB approval for FDI in INX Media. Chidambaram the agencies claimed asked the Mukerjeas to help the business of his son Karti and to make foreign remittances for this purpose . Karti Chidambaram in New Delhi. Prem Nath Pandey The Mukerjeas the CBI and ED claimed also admitted to have met Sh. Karti Chidambaram in Hotel Hyatt in Delhi where a demand for illegal gratification of 1 million was made. Sh. Karti Chidambaram suggested the names of Chess Management and Advantage Strategic as alternatives to make payments. While Chess Management Global Pvt Ltd was engaged by INX Media to advise in the matter Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL) was made a payment of Rs 10 lakh as consultancy fee. ASCPL the CBI said was indirectly controlled by Karti . Also Read: INX Media: P Chidambaram s fear of harassment of his family turns true The ED investigators claimed that ledger extracts produced by INX Media Ltd showed that the payment (of Rs 10 lakh) has been made for reply towards FIPB notification and clarification . During the probe by CBI and ED INX Media also produced emails and letters sent to Sh B Sai Chandravardhan VP Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd on the FIPB issue . We have about 200 emails that establish the connection between Chess Management and ASCPL and FIPB negotiations a probe officer said. Also Read: INX Media case: Chronology of events Four invoices connected to the alleged illegal gratification paid for FIPB approval in the matter were drawn by ASCPL (Rs 35 lakh) its Singapore subsidiary (USD 20 000) Northstar Software Solutions Pvt Ltd (Rs 60 lakh) and Greece-based Geben Trading Ltd (USD 500 000). These vouchers recovered from the computer of Karti s chartered accountant Bhaskararaman were from September 2008 the time when INX Media Ltd applied for fresh approval for downstream investment in INX News Ltd. The Finance Ministry later cleared the matter and allowed INX Media to make the investment. The CBI and ED have argued that INX Media had not been given clearance by the FIPB to make 26 per cent downstream investment in INX News. But it went ahead in 2007 itself. When the matter was flagged by the I-T department and FIPB sought clarification from INX Media it brought in Karti to sort out the issue. Karti investigators claimed helped INX Media seek fresh approval for an investment which had already been made. The company is accused of bringing in foreign investments worth over Rs 300 crore through three Mauritius-based companies against approval of only Rs 4.6 crore. For all the latest India News download Indian Express App Get assembly election result LIVE updates from each constituency in Tripura Nagaland and Meghalaya Tags: Indrani Mukerjea Karti Chidambaram P Chidambaram Sankaran KrishnanMar 1 2018 at 7:36 amIt is a known fact the Chidambaram and his family are very corrupt and as well power hungry and for the sake of money they will go and defend anyone which was true when the Advocate family defended Cocoa Cola Shard Scams and other high profile cases collecting huge fees for representing them and also misused the authority by the head of the family who was in Govt. under the corrupt UPA and hold important portfolios and the revelation of INX Media high profile arrested couples says the truth and hope the entire family is punished for the ill-gotten wealth and why not seize the assets held by the entire family to begin with in and around India followed at Foreign destinations !!!(0)(2) Reply rahil shakeMar 1 2018 at 7:32 amany evidence cbi can get would be from criminals only as anyone bribing would be part of crime as well. its nice to hear someone spilled the beans(1)(0) Reply rahil shakeMar 1 2018 at 7:25 amnot one person commenting favourably actually thinks he is not a crook just they are anti modi(1)(0) Reply rahil shakeMar 1 2018 at 7:23 amoh his son is innocent would anyone believe that.(1)(0) Reply GGanuMar 1 2018 at 7:08 amEvery one in India knows how corrupt PC and his family are .The Central Govt. does not need the help of a criminal to nail these scoundrels . PC should be arrested when he lands in India from UK . That will be the icing on the cake(1)(4) Reply Load More Comments
NEW DELHI: The CBI which has struggled to cap the leak of information pertaining to its investigations into sensitive cases managed to keep its plan to arrest Karti Chidambaram under wraps. Sources said the plan to pick up Karti from Chennai airport was kept a secret even from insiders to nip the possibility of tip-offs to the accused. The entire operation was kept top secret and not many in the agencies could get wind of the action leading to his arrest on Wednesday a top source said. Anticipating legal wrangles the Enforcement Directorate had even moved Chennai courts with caveats against any plea moved by Karti and his battery of lawyers against his arrest or obtaining a bail before the agencies could get hold of him. The precaution was considered necessary following the status report of CBI s probe into the Aircel-Maxis case being recovered from Karti s father P Chidambaram s house. The report was supposed to be shared only with the Supreme Court. Karti and others are under the scanner in the Aircel-Maxis case too. The surprise find led the CBI to drape additional veils of secrecy around their plans for Karti. The agencies sources claimed feared that Karti may have stayed on in London if he had been alerted about the plan to arrest him. They had earlier informed the SC that he was destroying evidence abroad on his regular visits. In his previous appointments with the agencies Karti was allegedly evasive in his answers to specific queries related to alleged payoffs received in companies associated with him. Since the CBI registered a case against him in May last year Karti has filed numerous applications in the Madras HC and the SC seeking reprieve from CBI and ED probes. Meanwhile ED is planning to seek Karti s custody to probe allegations about his role in facilitating FIPB approvals when his father held charge of the finance ministry
07:41 (IST) Karti Chidambaram to be produced before CBI court today #KartiChidambaram arrested in INX Media case to be produced before a #CBI court today. pic.twitter.com/x3SbobwbqP All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) March 1 2018
KOLKATA: Former Union minister P Chidambaram said today he would have resigned had he been in the shoes of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who was in an unenviable position while presenting this year s budget. If I was in Jaitley s position what I would have done? I would have resigned Chidambaram told an interactive session organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce here. He was speaking about fiscal consolidation in the context of the Union Budget for 2018-19. Jaitley must have been in an unenviable position to read out a Budget speech written by others he said. Criticising the Budget Chidambaram said the government was a total failure in terms of fiscal consolidation the consequences of which were frightening in the sense that it would cause inflation and borrowing plans to go haywire. In such a situation they might resort to savage taxation by hiking fuel prices as it is the biggest cash cow for any government the senior Congress leader said. Chidambaram a former Union finance minister said although the central government had the good fortune of lower crude prices it failed to pass the benefit on to the customers. The present Budget talked about pegging the fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent of GDP by 2018-19 which seemed unlikely as the revenue and expenditure figures were suspect he said. About the Goods and Services Tax Chidambaram said it was not the one which the previous UPA government had thought of. We suggested a single neutral rate of 18 per cent. Now we have so many rates. This is not GST. It is giving a bad name to GST he said. He said due to demonetisation of high value currency notes the farm sector came under stress and joblessness was witnessed in the small and micro sector. He dubbed the National Health Protection Scheme announced in the Budget as nothing but jumla (rhetoric) . Chidambaram was also critical of former president Pranab Mukherjee also a finance minister in the UPA-II government over the latter announcing a series of stimulus packages for reviving the private sector hit by the recession of 2008. What I feel is that kind of spending done by the government was not wise. It did dent fiscal stability and caused huge inflation he added. Need to amend AFSPA Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said today it is time to amend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act currently in force in Jammu and Kashmir and some other states. There is a need to amend the AFSPA if you cannot repeal it. The law and order should be entrusted to the Jammu and Kashmir police and not on the paramilitary forces Chidambaram a former Union minister said at a programme here. The act gives the security forces special rights and immunity in carrying out various operations in disturbed areas. There has been a long-standing demand from various quarters in J&K and the Northeast to withdraw it. Chidambaram also chairman of the panel on home affairs in the Rajya Sabha said the presence of paramilitary forces in the northern state should be whittled down drastically. He said it would lower the graph of violence there.
Hyderabad: Former Union minister P Chidambaram on Saturday advised the NDA government to appoint good managers to implement its various welfare programmes.The government is good owners of programmes but incompetent managers he said. Referring to the Economic Survey he said some of the flagship programmes such as Swachh Bharat Rural Electrification and LPG distribution are yet to produce tangible and measurable outcome.Toilets were built under the Swachh Bharat scheme but they lacked water connection and waste disposal system he said citing reports. Nobody is questioning the intentions of the government or the prime minister. I am sure the intentions are good. But what it proves is while they (government) are good owners of the programme they are very https://www.quotesdaddy.com/user/kkflipkart incompetent managers of programmes. If you want to have toilet programme to be implemented you must have a competent manager the former finance minister said at Manthan a forum that promotes public discussions.On the Union Budget Mr Chidambaram said it failed to address the issues of farmers youth and education.The Economic Survey had indicated that agricultural growth was stagnant which was not a good sign as over 50 per cent of our population depends on the farm sector the Congress leader said.The Budget also failed the test of fiscal consolidation he said.Indian economy has decoupled from the rest of the world and the Narendra Modi Government was very late to notice the decline of growth rate Mr Chidambaram said. CommentsClose X The government is whistling in dark. It has become intolerant and as a result the voices (of concern or dissent) are not heeded. If you don t listen or heed voices nobody is going to tell you the truth he said.To a question the former finance minister said people of the country may not accept privatisation of all public sector banks.
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