Enforcement Directorate issues look-out notice against P Chidambaram

After the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) too has issued a look-out notice against former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday in the INX media case. The Delhi High Court had a day before dismissed Chidambaram's plea for being granted bail whereas CBI demanded "custodial interrogation," while saying he was found to be evasive during earlier questioning.

After CBI registered an FIR primarily against his son Karti in 2017, the Supreme Court has now deemed him a key conspirator in the case.

The matter will be put up in front of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi before any decision is made, SC informed on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Chidambaram is untraceable.

ED had filed a chargesheet in the case in 2018 and had subsequently attached certain properties of the family.

In 2018, former promoter of INX media, Indrani Mukherjea, who is also serving term for her daughter Sheena Bora's murder, had turned approver in the case. In her statement to ED, she had said that along with her husband she allegedly met Chidambaram at his office in North block and he had helped fasten Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approvals on INX applications for faster flow of foreign direct investment in the company.

After receiving source-based information, CBI had registered an FIR in the case in 2017, stating that Chidambaram had approved 'proposed investment,' in INX when the company had already received 26 per cent FDI earlier and hence the proposal was malafide.

INX media had thus raised over Rs 300 crore in FDI against mandated Rs 4.62 crore by selling shares to foreign investors at a premium of Rs 800 per share, the CBI FIR stated.