Congress Leader P Chidambaram Moves Delhi High Court Against Trial Court Taking Cognizance Of ED Chargesheet In INX Media Case

Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has moved the Delhi High Court challenging a trial court order which took cognizance of the chargesheet filed against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case connected to the INX Media case.

Senior Advocate N Hariharan appearing for Chidambaram submitted before Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri on Thursday that mandatory sanction to prosecute the Congress leader was not obtained by the prosecuting agency in the case.

Apart from the petition, Chidambaram has also filed an application seeking stay upon the trial court proceedings qua him in the case.

Special counsel for ED, Zoheb Hossain, submitted that the allegations against Chidambaram is of creation of shell companies for receipt of proceeds of crime.

He said that the allegations, which are receiving of bribes, do not form part of discharge of any kind of official duty.

“It can never be that receiving bribes can ever fall in the discharge of official duties…. Unlike previous case (Aircel Maxis case), the allegations here are far beyond of what he has done in the position of a Minister…. The allegations qua money laundering is in the realm which has nothing to do in discharge of official duty,” he said.

Meanwhile Hariharan relied on various judgments to contend that sanction for prosecution is to be mandatorily obtained where official or public duty is involved.

It is Chidambaram's case that since he was a public servant at the time when the alleged offence took place, it was mandatory for ED to have obtained sanction as per relevant provisions hnder CrPC and PMLA.

However, ED has contended that the allegations against Chidambaram could not be part of discharge of any official duty.

The matter will now be heard tomorrow.

About the Case

CBI had registered an FIR dated 15th May 2017 against INX Media Pvt. Ltd., Karti Chidambaram and others for offences under sec. 120B read with sec. 420 of IPC along with sec. 8, 12(2) and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Since the offences find mention in the Schedule appeneded to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, a case was also registered by the Directorate of Enforcement (DoE), Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Government of India on 18th May 2017 and an investigation was therefore taken up for a possible action under PMLA.

The said FIR was registered on the allegations that Indrani Muherjea and Pratim Mukherjea, Director and COO respectively of INX Media entered into a criminal conspiracy with Karti P Chidambaram and committed illegal acts in receiving excess Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) than the amount approved by Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). 

Other allegation was that such unauthorized downstream investment by INX Media in INX News without the approval of FIPB, were got scuttled by Karti P. Chidambram by influencing the public servants of FIPB Unit, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance (MoF)

It was therefore alleged that owing to the criminal conspiracy and influence of P Chidambaram and Karti Chidambaram, such officials abused their official positions and caused undue favours to INX Media due to which INX Media had paid huge amounts to some companies which Karti P Chidambaram had substantial interest in, either directly or indirectly. 

The investigation revealed that for regularization of excess FDI and downstream investment by INX Media, proceeds of crime were generated on few occasions from criminal activities of the said case and the same were received by Karti P. Chidambram through some shell companies associated with him.

Furthermore, it was revealed that a fake invoice dated 26th June 2008 of Rs. 11,23,600 was raised in the name of ASCPL, a company beneficially owned by Karti Chidambaram, for providing consultancy services to INX Media. 

The investigation further revealed that four more fake invoices in the names of four other companies for amounts, totalling to approximately US $ 700,000 (equivalent to Rs.3.2 corers), in the month of September, 2008 were also raised on INX Media.

Case Title: P Chidambaram v. ED