The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against Karti Chidambaram and four others in a Delhi court in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case, PTI reported. The agency charged Chidambaram under Section 4 (punishment for money laundering) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Additional Sessions Judge Ruby Alka Gupta said the court would consider the chargesheet on July 4.
Karti Chidambaram’s father, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was not named an accused in the chargesheet but his name appears at several places in the document. The agency told the court that it may file a supplementary chargesheet in the case.
The chargesheet mentions that Karti Chidambaram controlled “each and every aspect” of Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, which received Rs 26 lakh as alleged bribe, reported The Times of India.
The chargesheet says that ASCPL was set up at Karti Chidambaram’s directions and he had arranged the funds to set up the company. It claimed that ASCPL “received” about Rs 26 lakh from Aircel Televenture Ltd, the Indian company that sold its shares to Maxis Communications. “This payment was received immediately after the [Foreign Direct Investment] approval,” the ED said in the chargesheet.
The chargesheet said that Maxis had “invested $800 million (Rs 3,565.91 crore) as Foreign Direct Investment.” “The authority of finance minister to give approval for FDI was limited to Rs 600 crore at the relevant time,” according to the chargesheet. “The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs was the competent authority for FDI proposals of over Rs 600 crore.”
The chargesheet mentions that in this case, however, the FDI was projected as Rs 180 crore which was the par value of the shares acquired by Maxis, whereas the FDI was actually Rs 3,565.91 crore.
The other firm listed as accused, CMSPL, was “a company promoted by Karti which received Rs 90 lakh from Maxis and its associate Malaysian companies allegedly for software services”, according to the chargesheet. “The software sold for Rs 90 lakh was designed to be used for compliance with Indian laws and was not of any use for a Malaysian company.”
In May, the court had given Karti Chidambaram interim protection from arrest till July 10 in two cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Aircel-Maxis case.
The Aircel-Maxis case involves the clearances granted by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to the firm Global Communication Holding Services Ltd for investment in Aircel in 2006. Chidambaram was the finance minister at the time. Chidambaram’s son allegedly facilitated bribes in the case.
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