Mumbai: Karti Chidambaram was on Sunday taken to the Byculla prison in Mumbai and confronted with Indrani Mukerjea as part of the CBI's probe into the INX Media case.
Karti, the son of senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram, was brought to the jail in central Mumbai around 11.15 am by a six-member team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). An official said Karti and Mukerjea were brought face-to-face and questioned by the CBI team for about four hours.
Mukerjea, a former director of INX Media (P) Ltd, is lodged in the jail in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case.
While entering the prison, Karti waved at the media persons who had assembled outside the high security prison. He and Mukerjea were questioned by the CBI as a part of its probe in the INX Media deal in which the former allegedly received kickbacks.
The doors of the prisons were shut and no other person from outside was allowed to enter the premises when the two were questioned, the official said.
According to sources, Indrani told the CBI about her meeting with Karti at Hyatt Hotel in Delhi. She also told CBI about the payments made to Karti through various channels. According to Indrani, Karti had demanded one million USD for Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to INX Media, but she had paid 7 lakh USD.
Indrani levelled the allegation in presence of Karti, who later denied it and told the CBI that he never received any payments for any clearance.
The CBI team came out of the prison around 3.15 pm and a Karti Chidambaram waved again with a defiant gesture at the media persons while standing on the footboard of a car being used by the agency. He told reporters that “all allegations against me are false and politically motivated.”
He was arrested by the CBI on February 28 after a confessional statement was given by Mukerjea before a magistrate. He was sent in a five-day CBI custody on March 1.
The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered his arrest, was based on the statement of Mukerjea, who recorded it under section 164 of CrPC before a magistrate on February 17.
The CBI alleged that Karti Chidambaram also received money from INX media to scuttle a tax probe. The firm was owned at the time by former media baron Peter Mukerjea and Indrani, who are currently in jail on charges of murdering Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora.
The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a money laundering case.
The CBI and the ED had carried out a series of searches at the houses and offices owned by the Chidambarams. Karti Chidambaram was questioned several times by the ED.
A Delhi court had on March 1 allowed the custodial interrogation of Karti Chidambaram by the CBI for five days, saying there was a need to unearth the larger conspiracy in the INX Media case and his presence would serve some important purposes connected with the investigation.
The court had said his CBI custody was necessary to confront him with documents and the co-accused, as well as to probe the role of others involved in the case.
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