The Delhi High Court has extended the interim in the protection of P. Chidambaram till September 28th with regard to the INX media issue. The Congress member had pleaded to the High Court seeking anticipatory bail in the same.
On July 25, the court had granted interim protection to Chidambaram till August 1. The court had also directed him ‘…not to leave the country without its permission and to co-operate in the investigation…’
The INX case dates back to 2007 where it had applied for clearance with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). INX Media had sought and approval ‘…in order to operate and broadcast a bouquet of channels including Hindi entertainment channel, and multiple vernacular entertainment channels…’ According to the CBI, ‘the Board in its meeting on 18 March 2007 approved an FDI inflow of Rs 4.62 crore against INX Media. It did not, however, approve the downstream investment by INX Media in INX News’.
The court had granted interim protection on 31st May after the arrest of the former Union minister and had directed the ED ‘not to take any coercive step against him’ in the INX Media money laundering case till 1 August. The High Court had also extended the interim protection against arrest granted to Chidambaram in the CBI case.
The ED and the CBI are probing how Karti Chidambaram managed to get clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board while his father was in office. Karti was arrested on February 28 by the CBI for allegedly taking money to facilitate the FIPB clearance to INX Media in 2007, when his father was the Union Finance Minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Bail was later granted to Karti in the case.
In the INX Media case, the CBI had registered an FIR on 15 May last year, alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance to the media group for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore, in 2007. Thereafter, the ED lodged a money laundering case in this regard.