What is INX Media case? Know why P Chidambaram has been arrested

A day after the dramatic arrest, the CBI officials began the intense grilling of former Union Minister P Chidambaram at the agency’s headquarters on Thursday. Chidambaram, accompanied by the members of the investigation team, was brought to the CBI headquarters at around 10 Wednesday night, officials said. After a thorough medical check-up by a doctor from the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, he was taken to the room where he spent a quiet night, they said.

What is INX Media case?

CBI registered an FIR in May 2017 alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to the INX group for receiving overseas funds. P Chidambaram was Union Finance Minister during the time. INX group got Rs 305 crore in 2007 from Mauritius-based companies. Chidambaramwas owned by media entrepreneurs Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani Mukerjea. 

The CBI says the investment was manipulated and firms bought each share for Rs 862.31 which was more than 86 times of their face values. The ED has also questioned P Chidambaram's son Karti on several occasions in the INX Media case. The ED has attached properties worth Rs 54 crore belonging to Karti Chidambaram in connection with the case. The agency has also attached properties belonging to Indrani and Peter Mukerjea.

“The ED suspects that Chidambaram was instrumental in granting alleged illegal FIPB clearances to at least four more business deals, apart from INX Media and Aircel-Maxis thereby receiving multi-crore kickbacks through multiple shell firms,” according to a media report.

As per CBI’s charges, after FIPB sought clarification from INX Media when the I-T Department began its investigation, the media firm engaged Karti Chidambaram, the promoter director of Chess Management Service (P) Ltd, to resolve the issue by influencing the public servants of the FIPB unit of Ministry of Finance by virtue of his relation with the then Finance Minister, P Chidambaram.