Chidambaram grilled for over 4 hours by ED in INX Media case
The CBI on Wednesday questioned former union finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram for nearly four hours in connection with its probe pertaining to the alleged irregularities in clearances to foreign investments in INX media during his tenure.
After coming out of CBI headquarters, Chidambaram said he had appeared before the CBI and the FIR did not contain any allegations against him. “Questions and answers were based on the files of FIPB. Hence there was little to add to the record,” the Congress leader said on Twitter. Mr Chidambaram's alleged role has come under the scanner of investigating agencies in connection with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board ( FIPB) clearance of ` 305 crore given to INX media.
Mr Chidambaram has also been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate ( ED) on June 12 over the alleged money laundering case in the Aircel- Maxis case. On Tuesday, the former union finance minister was for the first time questioned by the ED for nearly six hours in connection with the Aircel- Maxis case, following which, Mr Chidambaram had said in a series of tweets that the questions and answers were what was already on file.
Both central agencies — CBI and the ED — are investigating the foreign investment clearance granted in 2006 for the Aircel- Maxis deal and in the INX Media case in 2007, when Mr Chidambaram was finance minister in the UPA government.