Aircel-Maxis Case: P Chidambaram Questioned For Hours By Enforcement Directorate

New Delhi: Former Finance minister P Chidambaram was today questioned for over two hours by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case. This is the first time that the senior Congress leader has deposed for questioning before the Enforcement Directorate.

He arrived at the agency's headquarters in Delhi at around 10:58 am accompanied by a lawyer, even as a strong contingent of police and CRPF personnel set up a security cordon at the office.

He was allowed by the agency to go out for lunch at around 1:30 pm after over two hours of questioning, officials said. The questioning resumed again at 3 pm.

The Enforcement Directorate had issued a fresh summon to him yesterday to appear before the investigating officer of the case. The agency today recorded his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Mr Chidambaram's role has come under the scanner in the Rs 3,500 crore Aircel-Maxis deal in which the Enforcement Directorate has already questioned his son, Karti.

The former finance minister, also an ex-home minister, had last week approached the court of Special Judge OP Saini seeking relief from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the case.

The same court today directed the Enforcement Directorate not to take any coercive action or arrest Mr Chidambaram till July 10 in connection with the case.

The Enforcement Directorate had first asked him to appear before it on May 30 and on the same day, Mr Chidambaram approached the court. The court, in its order on May 30, had noted that Mr Chidambaram has undertaken to comply with the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate, while saying he apprehended his arrest by the agency.

The Aircel-Maxis cases pertains to grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to firm M/S Global Communication Holding Services Ltd in 2006 for investment in Aircel.

The Supreme Court had on March 12 directed investigating agencies -- the CBI and the ED -- to complete their probe into the 2G spectrum allocation cases, including the Aircel-Maxis alleged money laundering case, in six months.

The agency had said that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval in the Aircel-Maxis FDI case was granted in March 2006 by Mr Chidambaram even though he was competent to accord approval on project proposals only up to Rs 600 crore and beyond that it required the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

The Enforcement Directorate is investigating "the circumstances of the FIPB approval granted (in 2006) by the then finance minister."

"In the instant case, the approval for FDI of $800 million (over Rs 3,500 crore) was sought. Hence, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs was competent to grant the approval."

"However, the approval was not obtained from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs," the Enforcement Directorate had alleged.

The agency said its probe revealed that the case of the said FDI was "wrongly projected as an investment of Rs 180 crore so that it need not be sent to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to avoid a detailed scrutiny".

The Enforcement Directorate is probing the Aircel-Maxis deal under the PMLA after taking cognisance of a 2011 CBI complaint in the case.

P Chidambaram had earlier described the Enforcement Directorate action in this case as a "crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures" and said that the charge sheet filed by probe agencies had been rejected by the court. However, the agencies have maintained that the FIR in the case has not been quashed.

In September last year, the Enforcement Directorate had attached assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of Karti Chidambaram and a firm allegedly linked to him in connection with this case.