NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has chargesheeted former finance minister P Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis case.He, his son Karti Chidambaram and 16 others, including five government officials, have been named by the agency in its chargesheet filed in Delhi’s Patiala House Court on Thursday.The five public officials chargesheeted include the then secretary, joint secretary, under secretary, joint director of economic affairs.ET was the first to report on June 30 that public officials will be chargesheeted and that the chargesheet by CBI will spell trouble for the former finance minister.Responding to the development, Chidambaram dubbed the allegations against him, in a tweet, as “preposterous”.In its new chargesheet, the agency has said that two sets of money trails were discovered pertaining the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance.The chargesheet claims that two illegal payments of Rs 26 lakhs and Rs 87 lakh were paid to Karti Chidambaram’s companies—Chess Management and Advantage Strategic (allegedly indirectly owned by him) during the Aircel-Maxis deal.The agency has claimed that both the aforesaid payments were made “contemporaneously” to Karti’s firm when his father had cleared the FIPB clearances in the capacity of finance minister.As per the agency, Chidambaram as finance minister did not have the powers to given FIPB clearance beyond `600 crore. The agency has alleged that the said FDI was wrongly projected as an investment of Rs180 crore so that it need not be sent to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) to avoid a detailed scrutiny.Besides Chidambaram, his son, the other 16 who stand chargesheeted are: Malaysian media baron T Ananda Krishnan, Ralph Marshall; Ashok Kumar Jha, former Union secretary economic affairs; Ashok Chawla, then additional secretary; two serving IAS officers-Kumar Sanjay Krishna, joint secretary and Deepak Kumar Singh, director; Ram Sharan, under secretary; S Bhaskaraman; A Palaniappam; V Srinivasan and companies: Chess Management, Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited; Astro All Asia Networks; Maxis Mobile Malaysia; Bumi Armada Berhad (Malaysia) and Bumi Armada Navigations (Malaysia).The Enforcement Directorate had last month filed its chargesheet in the case implicating Karti Chidambaram.