No FIR , but Chidu roasted for 6 hrs

Former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has seen better days. On Tuesday, he was grilled for almost six hours by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Aircel-Maxis case.

The investigators, ready with their ammo, started firing questions at the former minister minutes after he arrived. In the afternoon, he was allowed to leave the ED office for one hour to have lunch. More than half the time was taken up by typing the answers without errors, reading the statement and signing it.

According to India Today news portal, not just the Aircel case but at least 54 FIPB approvals given under the UPA dispensation are under the scanner. These approvals were wrongfully given from May 2004 to 2009 and August 2012 to May 2014.

As per the policy guidelines in the UPA regime, in cases where the total foreign inflow was Rs 600 crores and above, the CCEA was the competent authority for sanctioning foreign investment. In the Aircel case, since the total inflow of foreign exchange involved in the acquisition of shares was Rs 3,520 crore, it should ideally have been approved by the CCEA. Rather, the approval was given by then finance minister," adds a document cited by the news portal.

According to ED sources, Chidambaram was confronted with documentary evidences gathered by the agency pertaining to this case. The evidence has been corroborated by the Finance Minister officials, it is claimed.

Later, a hapless Chidambaram said no FIR was registered against him, yet a probe had been initiated. "Appeared before the ED. The questions were about what is already recorded in the file. Hence, answers too were what is recorded in the file. Need to reiterate there is no FIR, no offence alleged, yet there is an investigation," he tweeted.