Aircel-Maxis case: ED grills PC for over 6 hrs
Former FM may be questioned again.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday questioned former finance minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram in connection with its probe into the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case.
Sources said the senior Congress leader was questioned by the agency sleuths for over six hours. The former finance minister arrived at the agency’s headquarters annexe office (Jamnagar House) here at about 11 am and was accompanied by a lawyer, even as a strong contingent of police and CRPF personnel set up a security cordon at the office. The agency recorded his statement under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) with some specific queries on the circumstances and procedures adopted by the now-defunct Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) while giving approval to the Aircel-Maxis deal during his tenure, sources said, adding that the former Union minister was questioned for the first time by the ED in this case. Mr Chidambaram’s son Karti has already been questioned by the ED twice in this case. He is likely to be questioned by another Central probe agency CBI, which is also investigating the case, on Wednesday.
Hours after his questioning, Mr Chidambaram tweeted saying that all the answers he gave to the probe agency were already recorded in government documents. He also said that there is no FIR, yet a probe had been initiated against him. “More than half the time taken up by typing the answers without errors, reading the statement and signing it!, he tweeted.
He was allowed by the agency to go out for lunch around 1.30 pm after over two hours of questioning, sources said. The next round of questioning began about 3.30 pm which ended around 7 pm, they said. The agency may call him again for questioning in this case. The ED had issued a fresh summons to him on Monday to appear before the investigating officer of the case.
Mr Chidambaram, also a former home minister, had last week approached the court of special judge O.P. Saini seeking relief from arrest by the ED in the case. The same court on Tuesday directed the ED not to take any coercive action or arrest him till July 10 in connection with the case.