Former Union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday rejected the reports that suggested his family members had influenced secretaries of the central government who were part of the now-defunct Foreign Investment Promotion Board. “Such an allegation is a despicable slur on the six secretaries of the government who constituted the FIPB at the relevant time,” he said in a statement.
The Congress leader said he had only approved FIPB-recommended cases and the ones put before him by the secretary of economic affairs. He further said five of the six secretariats on the FIPB were senior most IAS officers and the sixth was a senior officer of the Ministry of External Affairs. All of them had a distinguished record of service, he said.
“At the relevant time, the FIPB was chaired by D Subba Rao who later became the governor of RBI,” Chidambaram said in his statement according to PTI. “The other secretaries were equally distinguished civil servants.”
He said leaks and insinuations have been “deliberately” fed to the media. “In fact, I have obtained a copy of the FIR from social media. The origin of these leaks is Chennai in my home state of Tamil Nadu,” he said.
On May 19, the Enforcement Directorate had filed a money laundering case against his son, Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors, including Peter and Indrani Mukerjea. The Central Bureau of Investigation has been investigating the charge that Karti Chidambaram’s company had received Rs 10 lakh from INX Media in 2007 – which got a Foreign Exchange Promotion Board clearance for Rs 4 crores – but had actually received Rs 305 crores in foreign funding. Multiple raids were conducted at the Chidambarams’ properties in four cities recently.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!