Delhi Court seeks ED's response on Chidambaram's application in INX Media case

By Sushil Batra
New Delhi [India], July 24 : A Delhi Court on Saturday sought the response of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an application moved by former Union Minister P Chidambaram seeking direction to ED to supply several deficient documents in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.
Special Judge MK Nagpal on Saturday issued notice to the investigation agency and deferred the matter for August 9.
Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana, appearing for P Chidambaram, sought the court's direction to ED to rectify the discrepancies in the running/internal page numbering of the record and also to supply deficient documents.
The application stated that "in order to save time and expedite the proceedings, preliminary scrutiny of the complaint (ED Chargesheet) and documents supplied in electronic form has been carried out. The part, preliminary and ongoing scrutiny of the documents has revealed the several deficiencies and discrepancies."
On April 8, 2021, P Chidambaram, accused in the INX case was supplied with the complaint (ED chargesheet) and documents in a pen drive in electronic form, and the hard copies of the complaint or the documents were not supplied along with the pen drive.
"Due to the second wave of Covid the applicant could not conduct the scrutiny of the documents effectively. The applicant counsel has also been unable to carry out any inspection of the record filed before this Court," stated the application.
The same court had recently issued summons to P Chidambaram and others in the INX Media case including several firms which were named in the charge sheet.
Special Judge MK Nagpal, while taking the cognizance on the ED chargesheet said, "I find sufficient material and grounds for proceeding further in the matter against all the ten accused persons named in the complaint, out of which six accused are companies, for the commission of offence under Section 3 read with Section 70 of the PMLA, which is punishable under Section 4 of the said Act."
The INX Media Money laundering case involves P Chidambaram with the allegation of irregularities in foreign exchange clearance given to INX Media group for receiving overseas investments in 2007. Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram, who is currently a sitting Member of parliament, is also an accused in the matter. Besides Chidambaram, the charge sheet also named Karti's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman and others.
Accused P Chidambaram and S Bhaskararaman were arrested during the investigation of the case and both are presently on bail.
Earlier, CBI had registered its case on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in a Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance granted to INX Media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram's tenure as finance minister. Thereafter, the ED had lodged a money laundering case. The case pertains to FIPB clearance given to INX Media to the tune of Rs 305 crore when P Chidambaram was the finance minister.
The economic offences watchdog had registered a PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) case based on FIR by the CBI and alleged that irregularities took place in the FIPB clearance to INX Media.