A Delhi court on Wednesday, March 23, granted regular bail to former Union Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram in corruption and money laundering cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) respectively in relation to the Aircel-Maxis deal. The court, which had earlier granted anticipatory bail to both the accused in the matter, accepted the bail bonds of Rs 1 lakh each in both the cases and granted regular bail.
The accused had moved application through their lawyer Arshdeep Singh, seeking relief after they appeared before the court in pursuance of summons issued against them after it took cognisance of the charge sheets filed by the probe agencies in the matter. Earlier, the court had directed the agencies to file a status report in the Aircel-Maxis case which was adjourned sine die.
The case relates to alleged irregularities in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval in the Aircel-Maxis deal. The approval was granted in 2006 when Chidambaram was the Finance Minister. Authorities had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to the INX Media group for receiving Rs 305 crore overseas funds in 2007. The CBI and the ED had alleged that Chidambaram, as finance minister, had granted approval to the deal beyond his capacity benefiting certain persons and received kickbacks. Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI on August 21, 2019, in the case registered on May 15, 2017.
Last week, Delhi High Court's Justice Chandra Dhari Singh on recused himself from hearing a plea by the ED challenging an order that allowed Chidambaram and his son Karti to inspect the documents seized during the investigation.
The ED had approached the High Court challenging an earlier trial court order which had given relief to the Chidambarams. In November last year, the High Court had rejected a similar petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the order that allowed inspection of the documents, which were seized during the investigation.
With PTI and IANS inputs