New Delhi, February 3: The Law Ministry on Sunday granted sanction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute former finance minister P Chidambaram in the INX media case, reported news agency ANI. The CBI in January had sought the sanction of the central government to prosecute Chidambaram in connection with the case.  Meanwhile, earlier this week, the Supreme Court came down hard on the senior Congress leader's son Karti Chidambaram, over his plea seeking permission to travel abroad.

The apex court, while directing him to appear for questioning in Aircel-Maxis deal and INX Media case, asked him to deposit Rs 10 crore if he wanted to go abroad. The court also directed him to "not play around the law." The apex court asked Karti to appear before the Enforcement Directorate for interrogation with respect to his role in the Aircel-Maxis deal and INX Media case on March 5, 6, 7 and 12. INX Media Case: ED Attaches Rs 54 Crore of Karti Chidambaram’s Properties in India and Abroad.

The case date back to 2007 when the INX Media owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea that time, applied for clearance with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on March 15. According to the CBI, the board in its meeting on 18 March, 2007 approved an FDI inflow of Rs 4.62 crore against INX Media. The investigative agency alleged that Karti received funds for helping the INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during the period when Chidambaram was finance minister. The CBI had registered an FIR on May 15, 2017 in the case.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 03, 2019 05:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).