New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), calling former finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s behaviour “bias” towards his son, said that Chidambaram’s prejudice for his son is more important than upholding the law.
Earlier, on Monday, fomer finance minister termed the allegations of Enforcement Directorate in connection with Aircel-Maxis against his son Karti Chidambaram case as a “crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures.”
“P. Chidambaram has not said anything in the past six to eight months; he is maintaining a static silence on all the issues as he does not find any merit in commenting on the Government policies. Now that his son is in talks, he is trying to wiggle him out by trying to make such baseless charges,” BJP Spokesperson S Prakash told ANI.
He further said that Chidambaram himself was a finance minister for a long time in the country and he is well aware of the functioning of ED and other economic departments in the government of India.
In an official statement earlier, Chidambaram said, “The allegations in the Press note (ED) are a crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures,” and added that it cleverly skirts the issue of jurisdiction of the ED.
The Enforcement Directorate earlier in the day attached assets, bank accounts and fixed deposits worth Rs. 90 lakh of former finance minister P.Chidambaram’s son Karti, in connection with the Aircel-Maxis case.
During investigation the Enforcement Directorate found that Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval given by P. Chidambaram in Aircel Maxis case was beyond his mandate.
The law enforcement agency, in its investigation, also found that the amount for FIPB approval was wrongly projected to conceal the facts.
It also found that the company promoted by Karti and P Chidambaram’s nephew allegedly received two lakh dollars from Maxis Group in guise of software consultancy.
The former finance minister countered saying that the approval was granted in the normal course, and cited that Finance Minister was competent authority for approval.
“The press note is intended to intimidate me and to silence my voice. I will not be intimidated,” Chidambaram added.
“As and when the Attachment Order is served, suitable action will be taken in accordance with law,” Chidambaram further said in the stament.
Earlier on September 14, Karti denied to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case, stating that a special court had discharged all the accused and terminated the proceedings in the matter.
The CBI, however, clarified that the investigation in the matter is still underway.
Karti wrote to the CBI, stating that as per the notice issued on February 2, 2017, the investigation agency does not have any jurisdiction to issue a summons to him.
The Aircel-Maxis deal refers to a series of allegations of kickbacks in the telecom sector, which was part of the wider 2G scam that engulfed the UPA regime.
In 2011, former Aircel head C. Sivasankaran complained to the CBI that he was being forced by then telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran to sell Aircel to the Malaysia-based Maxis Communications group owned by T. Ananda Krishnan.
Earlier in February, Dayanidhi Maran and the others accused in the Aircel-Maxis case were discharged by a special CBI court.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy had alleged that in 2006 a company controlled by Karti received a five per cent share of Aircel to get part of Rs. 4,000 crore, paid by Maxis for a 74 per cent stake in Aircel.
According to Swamy, P. Chidambaram withheld the FIPB clearance till the five per cent was paid to Karti.
ANI