E-Paper
Co-accused Indrani is a key witness in case against P Chidambaram
Mukerjea, who is in jail in Mumbai accused of murdering her daughter Sheena Bora, was a director of INX Media Pvt Ltd. Chidambaram is accused of bypassing rules by clearing a foreign investment in the broadcasting company when he was finance minister in 2007.
According to a first information report (FIR) filed on May 15, 2017, the main witness against former finance minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media case is co-accused and now approver, Indrani Mukerjea.
Mukerjea, who is in jail in Mumbai accused of murdering her daughter Sheena Bora, was a director of INX Media Pvt Ltd. Chidambaram is accused of bypassing rules by clearing a foreign investment in the broadcasting company when he was finance minister in 2007.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) says INX Media applied in March 2007 to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board ( FIPB) for approval of a stake sale to the tune of 26%. The board, in a meeting held on May 18, 2007, allegedly didn’t give approval for the investment, but forwarded it to the finance minister.
Chidambaram cleared it and a press release of May 30, 2007 by FIPB said the approval was for a sale of R4.62 crore only. According to the case details, INX Media generated R305 crores in foreign direct investment (FDI) by issuing shares to foreign investors at a premium of R862 per share, instead of the par value of R10.
At that time, the income tax unit got wind of this sale and alerted FIPB, beginning its investigations. FIPB sent a letter to INX Media asking it to explain how the company had gone ahead and done this on May 26, 2008, almost a year after the initial approval.
Indrani Mukerjea told CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in her testimony that INX Media had got in touch with the finance minister’s son, Karti, who ran a consulting agency called Chess Management Services in Chennai. According to CBI, their brief was to “to get the issues resolved/ addressed amicably by influencing the public servants of the FIPB unit by virtue of his relationship with the Finance Minister.”
Karti Chidambaram, according to the FIR, advised INX Media to explain the investment as having been cleared by FIPB and that the excess “foreign inflow was justified as premium received against the shares issued.”
CBI alleges that “such deceitful and fallacious proposal was favourably considered by the officials of the Ministry of Finance and approved by the then Finance Minister.” The ministry, investigators say, also ignored a request by the revenue department to investigate the matter.
For this service, they said INX Media paid Advantage Strategic Consulting and other companies an amount of R3.5 crore, “in which Karti was having sustainable interests either directly or indirectly. Such invoices were falsely raised for creation, acquisition of media content.”
CBI goes on to say, however, that INX records show a R10 lakh payment to Advantage was for “management consultancy charges towards FIPB notification and clarification.”
Chidambaram has consistently denied any wrongdoing and described the charges as “political vendetta”. His son, Karti, now an MP from Sivaganga, has also denied any wrongdoing.
