Aircel Maxis Case: Court Expresses Displeasure Over Delay

Aircel Maxis case: Court expresses displeasure over delay in the investigation against P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram.

A Delhi court has expressed displeasure over the delay in the investigation against the former Union Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram in the Aircel Maxis case.

The court gave two more months to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to complete the investigation.

Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar accepted the request of the two agencies to give more time to the UK and Singapore for a report on the Letter of Request (LR) in connection with the ongoing investigation in the case.

The court said, ‘The case is unnecessarily delayed. The next hearing of this case will now be held on February 1.

The case relates to alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval of the Aircel-Maxis deal

What is Aircel Maxis Case

This case is related to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). In 2006, the Aircel-Maxis deal was approved by P Chidambaram as finance minister.

It is alleged on P Chidambaram that he only had the authority to approve project proposals up to Rs 600 crore. In order to approve the big project, he needed to get approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

This telecom related deal case was for approval of FDI of 3500 crores. Despite this, Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis FDI case was approved without the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

Subramanian Swamy had disclosed the case

In 2015, Subramanian Swamy disclosed financial transactions between various companies of Karti Chidambaram.

Swamy alleged that P. Chidambaram, who was the finance minister in the UPA government, helped his son Karti to benefit from this telecom deal.

For this, he deliberately stopped the documents and controlled the acquisition process so that Karti gets time to increase the share price of his companies.