ED wins INX Media case appeal; Karti Chidambaram’s Rs.22 cr assets stay attached in INX Media case
The Appellate Tribunal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) upheld the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) attachment of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram’s land and property in Jorbagh in Delhi and seven bank accounts in the INX Media bribery case. According to the Tribunal’s order, the Jorbagh property is worth Rs.16.05 crore, and seven bank accounts in the Indian Overseas Bank’s (IOB) Nungambakkam Branch in Chennai have more than Rs.6.23 crore worth of deposits. Interestingly, six accounts have the same value of deposits of Rs.93,51,961 each.
Dismissing the appeal filed by Karti, the Tribunal has ratified ED’s attachment orders, praising the then Investigating Officer Rajeshwar Singh. Karti argued that the attachment order was bad in law since the ED filed the prosecution complaint in the case against him more than 365 days after the confirmation of attachment. However, the Bench comprising Members Balesh Kumar and Rajesh Malhotra accepted ED’s contention that the delay fell within the COVID-19 limitation exclusion period as directed by the Supreme Court. Karti’s mother, Nalini Chidambaram, also has property in Jorbagh.
“The enormity of the situation for the Investigating Officer to have completed the investigation during the period of lockdown, when he was not even authorized to visit the witnesses or record their statements, needs to be appreciated. In any case, such witnesses could have declined to respond to the summons and tender their statements. The nature of COVID-19 did not rule out a threat to life arising from mere human interaction. The extraordinary circumstances arising due to COVID-19 would have had an impact on the pace of the investigations being conducted,” the Appellate Tribunal said in the order dated October 29. The ace Investigating Officer Rajeshwar Singh is currently the BJP’s MLA from Sarojini Nagar, Lucknow, since 2022, leaving the probe agency.
In an order passed on October 10, 2018, the ED had attached Karti’s 21 bank accounts and properties in London, Spain, apart from India, worth a book value of Rs.54 crore. This Provisional Attachment Order (PAO) was upheld by the Adjudicating Authority (AA) on March 29, 2019. This led to the appeal before the Appellate Tribunal.
Karti and his father, former Finance and Home Minister P Chidambaram, are accused persons in the CBI and ED’s INX Media bribery case. The case was related to taking Rs.15 crore bribe from INX Media owners Indrani Mukerjea and Peter Mukerjea, when they were caught by Income Tax for illegally bringing Rs.305 crore from abroad, while they were allowed only Rs.five crore. Finance Ministry officials Sindhushree Khullar, Anup K Pujari, Prabod Saxena, Rabindra Prasad, and Pradeep Kumar Bagga are also charged as accused by CBI along with Mukhejea couples.
Meanwhile, the accused and the bribe giver, Indrani Mukerjea, confessed before the investigators and the court and turned an Approver. The trials in CBI and ED cases are now in the framing of charges stage. Advocates Zoheb Hossain, Vivek Gurnani, and Kanishk Maurya represented ED.
The ED Investigating Officer Rajeshwar Singh unearthed the INX-Media bribery case in 2015 while probing the Aircel-Maxis scam raised by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. PGurus have published details of assets and bank accounts amassed in 14 countries by P Chidambaram’s family.[1]
Reference:
[1] Chidambara Rahasya – Details of huge secret assets & foreign bank accounts of Chidambaram Family – Mar 15, 2017, PGurus.com
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