Face of Nation : The government has issued a sanction to the CBI to prosecute former NITI Aayog CEO Sindhushree Khullar and others in connection with the FIPB clearance granted to INX Media, officials said.
The prosecution sanction has also been granted against then Under Secretary R Prasad, Director Prabodh Saxena, Joint Secretary Anup Pujari, apart from Sidhushree Khullar, who was additional secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, all of whom were involved in the processing of INX Media’s FIPB file.
The government has already given sanction to prosecute P Chidambaram in INX media case who currently lodged under judicial custody in Delhi’s Tihar jail. P Chidambaram had earlier claimed that while he was confronted with Khullar, Prasad, Saxena and Pujari, none of the then officials of the DEA implicated him in any manner.
According to P Chidambaram, the officials had maintained, during confrontation by the investigating agency, that he had not “given them any directions regarding the processing of the file pertaining to INX Media”.
Earlier this year, Indrani Mukerjea, in her statement, had said that she and her husband, Peter Mukherjea, had met P Chidambaram at his office chamber in Delhi’s North Block after the application for FDI approval was submitted to the FIPB. At the meeting, after having understood the issue, P Chidambaram had allegedly asked them to help his son Karti Chidambaram with his business and make “possible overseas remittances” in lieu of the FIPB approval.
She further stated that when Peter Mukherjea had met Karti Chidambaram in 2008 to resolve complications arising out of irregularities in the FIPB approvals, he allegedly asked for 1 million USD in an overseas account either owned by him or his associates in order to sort out the matter.
When Peter said that the overseas transfer will not be possible, Karti had allegedly suggested two companies, ‘Chess Management’ and ‘Advantage Strategic’, as alternatives for the desired payments. All these payments were handled by Peter, Indrani had claimed, according to the petition submitted in court by the Enforcement Directorate.
