Indrani Mukerjea claims to have paid $5 million to P Chidambaram, son Karti in bribe, says CBI chargesheet

Agencies
October 19, 2019

New Delhi, Oct 19: Indrani Mukerjea has claimed to have paid a bribe of US $5 million to former Finance Minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram through offshore payments in Singapore, Mauritius, Bermuda, the UK and Switzerland, the Central Bureau of Investigation stated in the chargesheet filed in a special court on Friday in the INX Media case.

The CBI also stated that it is awaiting response to its Letters Rogatory (formal request to a foreign court for judicial assistance) sent to five countries.

The agency filed a chargesheet against four entities and ten people under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 471 (signing a forged document as genuine) of Indian Penal Code and Section 9 (taking gratification, for exercise of personal influence with public servant), 13(1)(d) (abusing one’s position as a public servant) of 13(2) (public servant who commits criminal misconduct) of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The four entities charged are INX Media Private Limited (currently 9X Media Private Limited), INX News Private Limited (Direct News), Chess Management Services Private Limited and Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL).

The agency has charged P Chidambaram, then finance minister, his son Karti P Chidambaram, Ajeet Kumar Dungdung, the then section officer of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) unit at Ministry of Finance, Rabindra Prasad, then under secretary at FIPB unit, Pradeep Kumar Bagga, then officer on special duty at Department of Economic Affairs, Prabodh Saxena, then director FIPB, Anup K Pujari, then Joint Secretary (Foreign Trade) Department of Economic Affairs, Sindhushree Khullar, then additional secretary, S Bhaskararaman, Chartered Accountant, and Peter Mukherjea, then director INX Media Limited.

The CBI has made Indrani Mukerjea, who is currently in jail in Mumbai in connection with the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora, approver in the case. She in her statement to CBI also stated that a meeting with P. Chidambaram to discuss the modalities of illegal gratification was held between March/April 2007.

The agency stated that CBI had registered a case in May 2017 to investigate corruption in INX Media Private Limited which had received foreign investment Rs 403.07 crore against approved foreign direct investment (FDI) of Rs 4.62 crore.

Further, this company illegally invested Rs 40.91 crore in its sister concern INX News Pvt Limited from the received FDI amount without approval from FIPB in violation of provisions of Foreign Exchange Maintenance Act.

During investigation, it was found that Indrani and Peter, directors of INX Media Private Limited, entered into a criminal conspiracy with the then finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram (the then director Chess Management Services Pvt Limited) and the then public servants of FIPB unit, Department of Economic Affairs for getting the issue settled without any penal action against them.

“This caused undue pecuniary advantage to the companies concerned in terms of possible penalty under FEMA which could have been up to three times the total amount received,” said a senior CBI officer.

The chargesheet stated that Karti had floated a front company, ASCPL, for receiving illegal payoffs in the guise of various consultancies and other fees and payments.INX Media had also made a payment of Rs 9.96 lakh into the account of ASCPL.

“An illegal payoff without delivering any service,” said CBI adding that further probe into the matter is on.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) too had filed a money laundering case against Chidambaram in this regard in 2017. In the case, a Delhi court on Thursday sent P. Chidambaram to custodial interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate till October 24.

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News Network
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: AAP leader Sanjay Singh on Tuesday said his party will register a "massive win" in the high-stakes Delhi Assembly election, counting for which began amid tight security at various centres set up to carry out the exercise.

Initial trends suggested the ruling Aam Aadmi Party marching ahead, but the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders maintained that their party would win.

The counting began at 8 am and will be held in multiple rounds, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh said.

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Agencies
January 16,2020

New Delhi, Jan 16: United Forum of Bank Unions has decided to observe a two-day strike on January 31 and February 1, demanding early wage revision settlement which has been due since November 1, 2017, said the All India Bank Employees Association.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her second Union Budget on February 1.

Banks will also hold a strike on March 11, 12 and 13. Also, an indefinite strike will be held from April 1.

General Secretary, All India Bank Officers' Confederation West Bengal Sanjay Das has stated that the nationwide strike has been called over several demands.

"The demands include--wage revision settlement at 20 per cent hike on payslip components with adequate loading thereof and scrapping off New Pension Scheme (NPS)," said Das.

There are several demands to hold the strike including the merger of special allowance with basic pay, updation of pension, improvement in the family pension system, five-day banking, allocation of staff welfare fund based on operating profits and exemption from income tax on retiral benefits without a ceiling.

"Other demands include-- a uniform definition of business hours, lunch hour etc in the branches, introduction of leave bank, defined working hours for the officers and equal wage for equal work for the contract employee," said Das.

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News Network
February 29,2020

Feb 29: The "Dadi of Shaheenbagh" on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not understand the pain of losing children, as speakers at an anti-CAA rally here called on protesters to maintain peace and not give in to any provocation.

Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said that the battle is not for a day or two, but the protesters will have to be prepared to continue it for years to come.

Asma Khatoon, who has earned fame as the "Dadi of Shaheenbagh" in Delhi, asked how can a person take care of the whole country when he cannot maintain his own family.

"He would have realised how it feels to lose a child if he had his own children," she told a gathering at the Park Circus Maidan, which is being termed as the Shaheenbagh of Kolkata with women holding a sit-in for the last 53 days to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, proposed nationwide NRC, and the NPR.

The death toll Delhi's communal violence has gone up to 42.

She said it is not biryani that has attracted women to the protest at Shaheen bagh while holding that such vilification campaigns will have no effect on the agitation.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh has claimed that "uneducated men and women" are protesting at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh and Kolkata's Park Circus as they get money and biryani purchased with foreign funds.

"Home Minister Amit Shah has called 20 protesters to meet him, but I want to tell him that we are one lakh and I want him to mention the place where he wants us to go for the meeting," she said.

Tushar Gandhi said, "People should stay united and not give in to any provocation," he said.

Gandhi said that the people of West Bengal are lucky to have Mamata Banerjee as their chief minister.

"They will try to break her also and it is necessary that you continue to give her support," he said.

Gandhi claimed that no one can harm a country where its mothers and sisters come out to save it.

He claimed that the CAA is not about Hindus or Muslims, but will really affect the poor people, who will be made to run around to get their papers instead of earning for their basic and daily needs.

"It's a dichotomous government that we have at the Centre. On the one hand, they want us to provide documents to prove our citizenship, while on the other they refuse to accept the papers that one produces before it for the purpose," he said.

He claimed that the government is forcing its people to resort to lies and declare that they are political refugees from countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Gandhi claimed that time and again documents with the government like electoral rolls and land documents have been used to identify people of certain communities during riots.

"So it is dangerous to give too much information to the government," he said.

He called on the people to have faith in non-violence and asked them to maintain peace and harmony.

B R Ambedkar's great-grandson Rajratna Ambedkar claimed that it is the Adivasis who will also be affected by the CAA.

"I want to tell Modi and Shah that the country runs on the Constitution by Ambedkar and not M S Golwalkar (of RSS)," he said, adding that because of the rights conferred on people by the Constitution, those backward people who did not have the right to sit on a bullock cart are now flying jet planes.

He said that Modi and Shah committed an error by enacting the CAA as it has turned the people of the country into Indians only, instead of Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Sikhs.

"Every machinery of the country has been taken control of by the RSS. If one Modi or one Shah goes, they will bring in several more Modi or Shah," he said.

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