ED to once again grill Peter for 2 days

A special CBI court on Monday allowed the application moved by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate Peter Mukherjea, in connection with the INX media money laundering case. The anti-money laundering agency will quiz Peter on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The case also involves former finance minister and senior politician P Chidambaram’s son Karti and also Peter’s wife Indrani Mukherjea.

This is the second time such an application has been moved by the ED in last four months. The agency had in December quizzed Peter for two days.

Pursuant to fresh orders of special Judge V Jagdale, the agency would quiz Peter in the Arthur Road jail, where he is currently lodged.

Earlier in December 2017, the ED, as well as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), had moved applications before the special court seeking permission to interrogate Indrani, wife of Peter, who is also an accused in the case. Both the agencies have interrogated the Mukherjea couple before. It may be noted that CBI had initially registered a case against Indrani, her husband Peter and their channel INX media and also Karti Chidambaram. The First Information Report (FIR) registered in Delhi also names several officers from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), a unit of the ministry of finance, over alleged financial misappropriation by granting clearance to Peter Mukherjea and Indrani’s media company INX Media in 2008.

The agencies, both ED and CBI, have claimed that Peter and Indrani siphoned at least Great Britain Pound (GBP) 90 million, outside India through an unauthorised route like hawala.