‘Everyone knew Maxis proposal was illegal’

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Thursday charged Congress leader P Chidambaram , his son Karti and 10 others, including former economic affairs secretary Ashok Jha and then additional secretary of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, Ashok Chawla, for alleged bribery in the controversial Aircel-Maxis deal.Among others named by the agency were two serving IAS officers — then joint secretary Sanjay Krishna, who is currently posted as additional chief secretary of Assam, and Deepak Kumar Singh, then a director who is now a principal secretary in Bihar.Also named were Karti’s chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman, Malaysian tycoon T Ananda Krishnan and his key aide Ralph Marshall.The charging of Chidambaram, a powerful minister in the decade-long UPA regime, marks an important point in the escalating confrontation between BJP and Congress in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with the latter loudly screaming witch-hunt in response to the development.The former finance minister has been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in an “independent chargesheet” in the Aircel-Maxis probe, CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said.The charges invite a maximum punishment of seven years, if convicted.The case stems from the allegation that the Chidambaram-led finance ministry, in March 2006, abused its power to give Maxis Communications FIPB clearance which the latter used to bring in Rs 3,200 crore, far in excess of the ceiling of Rs 600 crore it was authorised to clear on its own.According to the CBI, Maxis, through its Mauritius-based subsidiary Global Communication Service Holdings (GCSH), had sought approval to buy 18 crore shares of Aircel in 2008 at the rate of Rs 10 each, totalling Rs 180 crore.The agency alleged that the real value of the deal, after including the premium, stood at Rs 3,200 crore and this was even reflected in Maxis’s proposal.Yet, FIPB only mentioned the face value of shares, i.e. Rs 180 crore, so that it could give Maxis, which already held 74% of Aircel shares, the nod on its own and keep the case from being referred, as required under rules, to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.“The total amount of Rs 3,200 crore, including the premium, was always reflected in the Maxis proposal but only the face value of the shares — Rs 180 crore — was kept on the file to avoid sending it to the CCEA,” the CBI said.“When the file was in FIPB, every aspect of Maxis’s investment, including the face value amount and premium amount, was discussed by senior officials several times. P Chidambaram himself was involved in the whole process and gave oral instructions on a few occasions. Everyone knew it was an illegal proposal, yet it was approved at the FM’s level,” the CBI added to emphasise Chidambaram’s alleged complicity.The CBI alleged that rules were flouted for kickbacks which came to Chidambaram’s son Karti.The agency claimed that while Maxis got FIPB approval on March 13, 2006, two weeks later, on March 29, Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd, a firm indirectly controlled by Karti, raised an invoice of Rs 26 lakh on Aircel for services related to “market survey”. Aircel made the payment on April 1, 2006.Subsequently, another company allegedly run by Karti — Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd — received Rs 87 lakh from subsidiary companies of Maxis for allegedly providing “software services”.The CBI alleged that its probe had disproved the claim that the payments were made for genuine “services”. These payments, the CBI said, were “kickbacks” for FDI approval given by the finance ministry to Maxis.Chidambaram is the second Cabinet minister of UPA to be charged by the CBI in the Aircel-Maxis deal. Earlier, DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran, who held the telecom portfolio in UPA-I, was booked by the agency for allegedly forcing the Indian promoter to sell Aircel to Maxis.A separate probe was started against Chidambaram on the same FIR, with the agency questioning him in December 2014 and again in June this year.