NEW DELHI: With the Centre granting sanction to prosecute former Union finance minister P Chidambaram in two separate money laundering cases, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday shared the orders with a special court in New Delhi and urged it to expedite trials.
Prosecution sanction in the INX Media and Aircel-Maxis deal cases were granted on February 10. The agency has approached Centre to get prosecution sanction following a Supreme Court verdict in November 2024, which held that prosecution sanction under Section 197(1) of the CrPC is mandatory even for complaints filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
In the INX Media case, the ED began probe under PMLA in 2017 based on a case registered by the CBI against INX Media and others, including Chidambaram’s son Karti.
The probe found that when Chidambaram was finance minister, FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) approval was granted and subsequently regularised for INX Media in alleged exchange of illegal gratification. In the Aircel-Maxis case, the ED said Chidambaram granted FIPB approval for FDI of $800 mn by Maxis into Aircel, which was way beyond his sanctioned powers as FM.