The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed prosecution sanction orders received from the competent authority against P Chidambaram, the then Union finance minister involving the alleged offence of money laundering in the Aircel Maxis Deal and INX media case, the federal agency said in a press statement on Thursday. The prosecution sanction orders have been placed before the concerned court.
In the INX media case, ED has claimed that its probe revealed that Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval was granted to M/s INX Media Pvt Ltd during the tenure of Chidambaram as the Union finance minister. “It was further revealed that, in consideration for granting and subsequently regularizing FIPB approval, illegal gratification was demanded and received through entities beneficially owned/controlled by Karti P Chidambaram, son of P Chidambaram. The investigation revealed that such amounts were routed through shell companies including M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd and associated entities which were under direct or indirect control of and beneficially owned by Karti P Chidambaram,” the agency said. Both Chidambaram and Karti have denied any wrongdoing.
The agency said that the Supreme Court delivered a judgement on November 6, 2024, in the case “Directorate of Enforcement vs Bibhu Prasad Acharya, etc’ wherein it held that the requirement of the prosecution sanction under section 197(1) of the CrPC is applicable to a complaint filed under section 44(1)(b) of the PMLA, 2002, also. “Subsequent to this judgement, many accused persons charged under PMLA, 2002, have challenged the trial proceedings in multiple legal forums, leading to delay in the trial. To counter such delay and to comply with the judgement of the SC, ED has swiftly initiated remedial actions by seeking prosecution sanctions in all such prosecution complaints involving public servants,” the agency said.Therefore, in light of the said order of the SC, the sanction of P Chidambaram was sought from the competent authority in this case and the sanction was obtained on February 10 in respect of P Chidambaram along with the Order under section 197 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Section 218 of Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, for prosecuting P Chidambaram, the then Union finance minister in respect of the offence of money laundering in Aircel Maxis and INX Media case, the agency added.
