Aircel-Maxis deal: Stop badgering Karti, question me instead, says P Chidambaram

"In Aircel-Maxis, FIPB recommended and I approved minutes. CBI should question me and not harass Karti Chidambaram," Chidambaram said in a series of tweets, adding, "Sad CBI spreading misinformation. In Aircel-Maxis, FIPB officials have recorded statements before CBI that approval given was valid."

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P Chidambaram (Files)

Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday said that instead of badgering his son Karti, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should pose questions to him. Chidambaram also charged the Bureau for spreading wrong information. Karti is currently undergoing a CBI probe in the Aircel-Maxis case. “In Aircel-Maxis, FIPB recommended and I approved minutes. CBI should question me and not harass Karti Chidambaram,” Chidambaram said in a series of tweets, adding, “Sad CBI spreading misinformation. In Aircel-Maxis, FIPB officials have recorded statements before CBI that approval given was valid.”

The probe agency had summoned Karti for questioning on Thursday with regard to the go-ahead given to foreign funding in the deal between Aircel and Maxis when P Chidambaram was the finance minister under the UPA government.

Karti denied the summons. He had said that all the accused had been relieved of charges by a special court, which had also stopped all proceedings in the case. CBI had strongly contradicted this statement and stuck to its stand that the probe was still underway.

As per a chargesheet filed by the probe agency in a special court, Mauritius-based M/s Global Communication Services Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Maxis, looked for government government nod to invest a sum of $ 800 million (Rs 5,127 crore based on current rates).

The nod was supposed to come through the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) but was given by the FM instead. “However, the approval was granted by the then finance minister. Further investigation is being carried out into the circumstances of the FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) approval granted by the then finance minister. The related issues are also being investigated,” the CBI had claimed in 2014.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had said that Chidambaram had given FIPB approval to the investment whereas it should have come through by the CCEA, which was presided over by the PM. P Chidambaram, who was questioned by the CBI with regards to the case in 2014, had said this year that the FIPB clearance was given in the “normal course of business”.

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