Peter, Indrani siphoned off 90 million pounds: ED
MUMBAI: Former media baron Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani have allegedly siphoned off 90 million pounds from INX Media, and the money has gone to overseas countries through hawala channels, claimed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is probing a money laundering case against the two.
ED’s counsel Hiten Venegaokar on Thursday filed an application before the special CBI court seeking permission to record Indrani’s statement. The court accordingly allowed ED to record her statement.
In the application, the agency said, “Illicit funds gathered by Peter Mukerjea and Indrani have been siphoned off to unknown overseas destinations and routed back to UK and India through Mauritius-based foreign investors.”
The application added that Peter’s son Rabin is handling the funds purportedly held in the form of bonds in New Zealand.It said, “We said Rabin Mukerjea has ownership/association of 3 bank accounts in Royal Bank of Scotland and accounts in ANZ Bank, and a company...”
INX Media had filed an application on March 13, 2007 with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), ministry of finance, and the Government of India seeking permission to receive funds from foreign investors. FIPB, on May 31, 2007 permitted it to receive foreign investments of ₹42.2 million approximately. INX Media, however, received foreign investment totalling to ₹3,053.6 million between August 22, 2007 to May 12, 2008. ED has taken up the investigation after CBI registered a case over the irregularities. The CBI has registered the case against Peter and Indrani, Karti Chidambaram, Chess Management Services, Advantage Strategic Consulting Limited’s director Padma Vishwanathan.