Centre allows CBI to move against ex-NITI Aayog CEO, others in INX case

New Delhi: The government has issued a sanction to the CBI to prosecute former NITI Aayog CEO Sindhushree Khullar and others in connection with the FIPB clearance granted to INX Media, officials said.

Besides Sindhushree Khullar, the government has also sanctioned the prosecution of former secretary of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Anup K Pujari, the then director in the Finance Ministry Prabodh Saxena, and former undersecretary in the Department of Economic Affairs Rabindra Prasad in the case involving INX Media, they said.

The government had already sanctioned the prosecution of former finance minister P Chidambaram in February this year, the officials said.

Sindhushree Khullar served as additional secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs during 2004 and 2008. Mr Pujari was the joint secretary during 2006 and 2010; Mr Saxena served as the director of the department between 2008 and 2010, and Mr Prasad also worked during the period under investigation, they said.

An FIR was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds in 2007 when Chidambaram was the finance minister in the UPA government.

INX Media was once owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea, prime suspects in this money laundering and corruption case.