ED arrests former Finance Minister Chidambaram family’s Finance Manager in INX Media bribe case
With the key Finance man of the Chidambaram family arrested by the ED, the heat is on the former Finance Minister
The Enforcement
Directorate (ED) on Friday arrested Bhaskar
Raman, the financemanager of former
Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s family in the INX
Media bribe case. Bhaskar Raman’s arrest is a big blow to Chidambaram and son Karti as he is handling the
Indian and foreign company affairs of the family empire. A day after grilling
of Karti for 10 hours in the INX Media bribe case, the ED on Friday morning
arrested Chidambaram family’s Chartered Accountant Bhaskar Raman, who is a
Director in most of the firms of the former Finance Minister’s son’s
firms in India and abroad. The ED also conducted raids at Karti’s associates
CBN Reddy, M Rajesh, Vishwanathan and Padma Vishwanathan’s homes and
offices in Chennai. Bhaskar Raman was arrested from Taj Man Singh in Delhi in
the morning and sent to ED’s custody for five days.
ED has already unearthed the
curious WILL documents of Bhaskar Raman, CBN Reddy, M Rajesh, Vishwanathan and
Padma Vishwanathan. These curious WILLs executed by these people say that all
their properties after death belong to Karti and his daughter due to their love
and affection towards father Chidambaram!!!!.
Producing Bhaskar Raman
before the Special Judge Sunil Rana, ED said that the Chartered Accountant’s
custody and interrogation is needed to unearth the money
trails in INX Media money
trail leading to Karti and father Chidambaram. Bhaskar Raman is believed to be
the person looking after the former Finance Minister’s family’s financial
affairs and their firms in India and abroad. The ED counsels argued that INX
Media’s “deceitful and fallacious” FIPB proposal was approved by the then
Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
It is expected that in coming
days ED and CBI going to arrest more persons,
in this case, hitting Chidambaram and son. Meanwhile, Madras High Court has
allowed Karti to go abroad and canceling the six months long Look
Out Circular (LOC) issued by the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI). Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul
Quddhose after hearing both the parties allowed the petition moved by
Karti seeking permission to go abroad. Though the CBI vehemently opposed the
petition by Karti, the court allowed him to go
abroad and return back to India by February
28. The court directed Karti to keep the CBI informed about his
travel plans and also the details of the places he is visiting. The High Court
expressed displeasure on the CBI arguments and observed that without charge
sheet or any other action, the LoC can’t hold for a long time.
“Karti had made plans for two
trips abroad. The court by its order on Friday has cleared the first trip he is
undertaking in the month of February. His second trip scheduled for the month
of March would be decided later by the court,” said G Rajagopal, Additional
Solicitor General. Karti is expected to leave for France soon to attend the
business meeting of his company Totus Tennis for managing the European tennis
season related commitments. The CBI was also slammed by Supreme Court for
inaction on Karti even after issuing LoC. At one point SC Judges also rebuked
CBI for raising simply allegations and not acting.
Karti who was interrogated
for more than 10 hours on Thursday was let off by ED around 12 midnight, asking
him to come with more documents of his companies engaged in the INX Media bribe
case. The CBI and ED had registered a First Information Report (FIR) in
the case in May 2017 and also conducted raids against Karti and companies
linked to him, Karti kept playing hide and seek game with agencies.
Meanwhile, co-accused Indrani
Mukerjea, the promoter of INX Media, has admitted to the CBI and ED that she
had paid around Rs. Five crores to
Karti for getting Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearances. The
payments were made to Karti’s firms Chess Management Services and Advantage
Strategic Consulting through Indrani’s firms in London. Peter Mukerjea is also
an accused in this case. According to investigators, all money deals were
directly handled by Chidambaram and money was transferred from London. As
per the CBI and ED FIRs, in 2007, INX Media got FIPB clearance for only Rs.
five crores of foreign investments. But the TV channel illegally brought more
than Rs.305 crores from Mauritius registered companies in a dubious way. Income
Tax authorities found the irregularity and issue a notice to Indrani and
husband Peter Mukherjea. Thereafter, the duo approached Karti, then
Finance Minister Chidambaram’s son for post factor FIPB clearance.
Chidambaram, as Chairman of
FIPB, illegally gave post facto clearance to the INX Media. The INX media
scam was unearthed during the joint raid of ED and Income Tax in December 2015
at Karti’s companies in connection with Aircel-Maxis scam[1]. The investigators seized the hard disks
from the Karti’s firms, unearthing details of the family’s properties and
hotels and farmhouses in 14 countries and 21 undeclared foreign bank accounts[2].
References:
[1] Raids dig up empire of PC’s son – Feb
29, 2016, Pioneer
[2] Chidambara Rahasya – Details of huge secret assets &
foreign bank accounts of Chidambaram family – Mar
15, 2017, PGurus.com
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