ED moves Delhi Court to quiz Indrani Mukerjea in PMLA case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) On Tuesday moved a Delhi court to issue production warrant against jailed INX media director Indrani Mukerjea in a case of alleged money laundering filed against her, Karti Chidambaram, son of former minister P Chidambaram, and others.

Mukerjea is currently facing trial in Mumbai in connection with the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora and has been lodged in a jail there.

The ED's advocate Nitesh Rana told special judge Sunil Rana that there are certain discrepancies in the income tax returns of the firm and Mukerjea was required to be confronted in that regard.

The court has put up the matter for further hearing on August 16 since it needed to go through the case file.

The ED has registered the case against Karti, INX media and its directors, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea and others, after taking cognisance of a recent CBI FIR against them.

The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), ED's equivalent of a police FIR, was registered under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The accused have denied all the charges against them.

The CBI had filed an FIR against Karti and the Mukerjeas on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

It is alleged that Karti had received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.

The CBI had also recovered vouchers of Rs 10 lakh which were allegedly paid for the services.

These vouchers were issued in favour of Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Karti, the CBI had alleged.

The senior Chidambaram, after the CBI searches on May 16, had issued a strong statement in response to the raids saying the government was using the CBI and other agencies to target his son.

FIPB approval was granted in "hundreds of cases", the senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister had said.

The CBI FIR was against Karti, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas (currently in jail on charges of murdering Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora), INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its director Padma Vishwanathan.

PTI