The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday filed a charge sheet against former Union minister P. Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case.
The agency has named nine accused in the case, including Chidambaram, S. Bhaskaraman and four Maxis companies.
CBI special judge O.P. Saini fixed November 26 for consideration of the charge sheet.
Chidambaram’s son Karti has already been questioned in the Rs 3,500crore Aircel-Maxis deal, which pertains to the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to the firm Global Communication Holding Services Ltd in 2006 for investment in Aircel.
On March 12, the Supreme Court had directed investigating agencies — the CBI and the ED — to complete their probe into the 2G spectrum allocation cases, including the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case, in six months.
The agency had said FIPB approval in the Aircel-Maxis FDI case was granted in March 2006 by Chidambaram even though he was competent to accord approval on project proposals only up to Rs 600 crore. Beyond that, it required the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
Chidambaram had earlier described the ED action in this case as a “crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures”.
In September last year, the ED had attached assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of Karti and a firm allegedly linked to him in connection with this case.
