New Delhi: Filing status reports Friday of their investigation into Aircel-Maxis cases before a Delhi court, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said active investigation into the matter was going on while the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reported that letters of rogatory has been sent to Malaysia and the status is awaited.
Judicial requests, also known as letters rogatory, are issued by courts on the request of an investigation agency when it wants information from another country.
The court had January 31 ‘revived’ the Aircel-Maxis cases filed by the CBI and the ED against former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti that were earlier adjourned ‘sine die’.
The case was adjourned ‘sine die’ – without fixing any date for hearing – September 5 last year with the court noting that the two probe agencies were seeking ‘adjournment after adjournment’.
The court had also granted anticipatory bail to the father-son duo. It has been challenged in the Delhi High Court, which will hear the matter March 4.
The trial court took up the matter on its own January 28 and sought the status report from the CBI and the ED. They however sought more time and the court granted them two weeks.
It had September 5 granted anticipatory bail to P Chidambaram and Karti in the corruption case filed by the CBI as well as in the money laundering case lodged by the ED in relation to the Aircel-Maxis deal.
The probe agencies were investigating how Karti Chidambaram received clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006 when his father was the Union Finance Minister.
The CBI and the ED had alleged that Chidambaram, as finance minister during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule, granted approval to the deal beyond his capacity benefitting certain persons, and received kickbacks.
PTI
