ED granted prosecution sanction against Chidambaram in two cases

NEw new delhi: The Enforcement board of directors (ED) has received criminal prosecution countenance against senior united states congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram in two separate money laundering cases related to the Aircel-Maxis and INX Media deals, the agency said on Thursday, adding it has submitted the sanction before a court to expedite the trial.Both the Aircel-Maxis and INX Media deals took place during the Congress-led UPA regime, when Chidambaram was the finance minister. ED filed a charge sheet in the Aircel-Maxis case in 2018 and in the INX Media case in 2020, naming the senior Congress leader in both of them. The court took cognisance of the charge sheets in 2021.The trial in both the cases was stayed by courts for lack of prosecution sanction under section 197 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) — now Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).Through a November 2024 ruling, the Supreme Court mandated ED to also take prior sanction under the provision for any court to take cognisance of the charge sheet. The provision was earlier only applicable to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). After multiple appeals were filed by accused persons, the ED said, it has been proactively seeking prosecution sanctions for public servants. Consequently, sanction for the prosecution of Chidambaram was sought in both cases. It was obtained from the competent authority on February 10, ED added.The prosecution sanction order has been placed before the special court, Rouse Avenue by ED to expedite the trial in both the cases, the agency said.Chidambaram did not respond to HT’s request for a comment.In the Aircel-Maxis deal, Chidambaram was named as accused number 6 while in the INX Media probe, he was arraigned as accused no 1.ED alleged that the former finance minister granted foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) approval to Aircel-Maxis in lieu of quid pro quo as foreign investor (Maxis) applied for its foreign direct investment (FDI) approval to the tune of $800 million ( ₹3,565.91 crore). The competent authority for this approval was the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).“However, as part of a larger conspiracy, approval was fraudulently and dishonestly granted by the then finance minister P Chidambaram on March 20, 2006 who was competent to consider and approve FDI proposals involving total investment of ₹600 crore or less,” ED said.The agency added that its probe found that illegal gratification of ₹1.16 crore was received by Chidambaram’s son and Congress lawmaker Karti Chidambaram in his companies — Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL) and Chess Management Services.In the INX Media case, ED filed two charge sheets naming Chidambarams. ED alleged that INX was given FIPB approval for which illegal gratification was received through entities beneficially owned or controlled by Karti.