NEW DELHI: Former finance minister P Chidambaram was again grilled by the Enforcement Directorate officials on Friday for over six hours in connection with the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case. This is his third appearance before the agency in last the few months.

The ED probe in the Aircel-Maxis 2G spectrum scam is to be completed by September 12, the deadline set by the Supreme Court, and the agency has to file all pending chargesheets in the case by then.

Sources said the agency is finalising a second chargesheet in the case to be filed by the end of this month. The ED has already questioned former senior officers of the finance ministry in this case who were then responsible for the foreign direct investment (FDI) approval granted to Aircel Ltd in 2006.

The ED had filed its first chargesheet in the Aircel-Maxis case in June against Karti Chidambram, son of the former FM, alleging that he had received payments of Rs 90 lakh and Rs 26 lakh by two companies associated with him as quid pro quo for the FIPB approval granted by the then FM to Aircel-Maxis.

P Chidambaram was the FM in 2006 when FDI approval was granted to Aircel for an investment of Rs 3,500 crore bypassing the cabinet committee of economic affairs. The ED’s chargesheet against Karti also accused the former FM as part of the conspiracy where an FDI of Rs 3,500 crore was “wrongly” projected as “an investment of Rs 180 crore only”. Chidambaram has, however, denied any illegality in the deal.

