Karti Chidambaram brought to Byculla prison to be confronted with Indrani

Mumbai: Karti Chidambaram, arrested in the INX Media case, was on Sunday brought to the Byculla prison here to be confronted with Indrani Mukerjea as part of the CBI’s probe into the matter, a senior official said. Indrani, a former Director of INX Media (P) Ltd, is lodged in the jail in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case.

A six-member team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) brought Karti Chidambaram, the son of senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram, to the prison in Central Mumbai on Sunday morning, he said.

The CBI team, accompanied by a woman police official, will bring him face-to-face with Indrani, who is lodged in the Byculla prison, he said. The doors of the prisons were shut and no other person from outside was allowed to enter the premises, he said.

After confrontation with Indrani Mukerjea, the CBI team is also expected to bring Karti Chidambaram face-to-face with her husband and former media baron Peter Mukerjea, he added. Karti was arrested by CBI after the confessional statement of Mukerjea in the case on February 28. He was sent to five-day CBI custody on March 1, official said.

Karti was arrested at Chennai Airport on his return from the United Kingdom, in connection with the FIR lodged on May 15 last year alleging irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds worth about Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father was the Union finance minister.

The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered Karti’s arrest, was based on the statement of Indrani Mukerjea, who recorded it under section 164 of CrPC before a magistrate on February 17.