Chennai: Two weeks after CBI charged his son Karti with influencing decisions of FIPB in a case related to INX Media, ex union finance minister P. Chidambaram punched holes in the probe agency’s theory. He said his son neither met any of the six secretaries who form the board nor he had any connection with the applicant company.
In a statement here on Monday, Chidambaram, who held the finance portfolio on two occasions – 1996-1998 and 2004-2008, said it was “preposterous” to suggest that any member of his family could influence powerful secretaries of the government since everyone who worked with him knew that “no one would dare to influence my decisions.”
He also claimed “leaks and insinuations have been deliberately fed to a section of the media and maliciously circulated in the social media” and that most of these had originated from Chennai. The former Union Minister also said the allegation that Karti could influence the FIPB, which was abolished a week back.
“Anyone who has worked with me knows that no one would dare to influence my decisions. I had never allowed any family member to speak to me or to any officer of my ministry on any official matter. It is therefore preposterous to suggest that a member of my family, with or without my knowledge, influenced, by corrupt or illegal means, the six Secretaries who constituted the FIPB,” Chidambaram said in the statement.
As far as FIPB cases were concerned, Mr Chidambaram said, he approved only those cases that were recommended by the FIPB and put up to him by Secretary, Economic Affairs.
“I can say with absolute certainty that Karti had never met any officer connected with the FIPB,” he asserted and took pains to explain that Karti had no connection with the applicant company— INX Media and INX News and that he was never a director or shareholder of Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL).
Both companies have been named in FIR registered by the CBI. The CBI claims that Karti received money from INX Media through a company “indirectly controlled by him” for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of FIPB conditions.
‘Misinformation from Chennai should stop’
Former Union Minister P Chidambaram on Monday suggested that his political opponents in Chennai “deliberately fed” leaks and insinuations to a section of the media and “maliciously circulated” them in the social media about him and his son in connection with the CBI case. “In fact, I have obtained a copy of the FIR from the social media. The origin of these leaks is Chennai in my home state of TN,” he said, adding that the FIR alleges that there was a conspiracy involving public officials who were induced by corrupt and illegal means to grant the approval. “Yet the FIR does not name a single public official,” he said and termed the “so-called gratification” — cheque for Rs 10 lakh — as the most ridiculous allegation.
