INX Media PMLA case: ED summons P Chidambaram

New Delhi: Former Union Minister P Chidambaram has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in the INX Media money laundering case on Wednesday, official sources said.

They said the senior Congress leader has been asked to depose before the investigating officer (IO) of the case to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The central probe agency has earlier grilled Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram in this case and has also attached his assets worth an estimated Rs 54 crore, located in India and abroad.

The ED had registered a PMLA case in this deal case on the basis of a CBI FIR and had alleged that irregularities took place in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

It had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED’s equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in a CBI complaint, including Karti, INX Media and its directors Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

Karti Chidambaram was also arrested on February 28 by the CBI for allegedly taking money to facilitate the FIPB clearance to INX Media in 2007 . He was later granted bail.