Aircel-Maxis Case: Delhi Court Extends Interim Protection From Arrest To Chidambaram, Son

A Delhi court today extended till Oct. 8 the interim protection from arrest granted to former Union Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in Aircel-Maxis cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.

Special CBI Judge OP Saini put up the matter for Oct. 8 after the counsel appearing for the agencies told the court that the main counsel was not well and requested time.

Advocates appearing for the CBI and the ED, KK Goel and Nitesh Rana, told the court that the agencies required time to file a detailed reply and argue on the application filed through Chidambaram’s lawyer Arshdeep Singh.

Chidambaram and his son Karti were named in the charge sheet filed by the CBI on July 19.

The agency filed a supplementary charge sheet before the special judge, who had fixed it for consideration on July 31.

The CBI is probing how Chidambaram, who was the Union finance minister in 2006, granted a Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval to a foreign firm when only the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs was empowered to do it.

The senior Congress leader’s role has come under the scanner of investigating agencies in the Rs 3,500-crore Aircel-Maxis deal and the INX Media case involving Rs 305 crore.

In its charge sheet filed earlier in the case against former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and others, the agency had alleged that Chidambaram had granted an FIPB approval in March 2006 to Mauritius-based Global Communication Services Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Maxis.

The Maran brothers and the other accused named in the CBI charge sheet were discharged by the special court, which had said the agency had failed to produce any material against them to proceed with the trial.

The ED is also probing a separate money laundering case in the Aircel-Maxis matter, in which the agency has questioned Chidambaram and Karti.

Both Chidambaram and Karti have denied the allegations leveled against them by the CBI and the ED.