Stating that its investigation is not confined to the INX Media case, the agency said a shell company – M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL) – indirectly controlled and owned by Karti Chidambaram received 'substantial questionable funds from various companies which had official work with the Ministry of Finance, including FIPB approvals'. The agency has cited emails exchanged between M/s Chess Management Services (charge sheeted), a company co-founded by Karti Chidambaram and INX Media officials to corroborate that Karti’s company instructed INX Media to make payments to Karti’s shell company (ASCPL) for the services (consultancy) rendered by Chess Management. Instead, the shell company (ASCPL), which never rendered any services to INX Media, raised an invoice of Rs 10 lakh in name of INX Media. “During the meeting at the coffee shop at Hotel Hyatt, Karti assured Indrani and Peter that contentious issues of INX Media would be resolved” and Karti demanded “one million dollars” bribe to get FIPB clearance.Charge sheeting P Chidambaram, CBI has stated that Chidambaram was fully aware of the complaints against INX Media. Elaborating on the meeting between Indrani Mukerjea, Peter Mukerjea and P Chidambaram, CBI has said that the meeting “gets corroboration through records relating to their (Indrani and Peter) stay at Hotel Oberoi, New Delhi, for the relevant period and the taxi bill for travel.

Source: Economic Times October 21, 2019 18:11 UTC