Aircel-Maxis deal: Manish Tewari backs Chidambaram

"There was nothing which was done which was not in accordance with rules, which were prevalent at that point in time. After this clarification or the statement by the former finance minister, I don't think there is anything to add or subtract to it," Tewari said in Ludhiana.Congress leader Manish Tewari on Saturday voiced his support for former finance minister P. Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis deal, saying the decision was taken as per the law.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy said the CBI should thoroughly investigate Chidambaram's role in the Aircel-Maxis deal.

"It has turned out that in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) it was known that the Aircel-Maxis deal was an illegal deal because it was directly or indirectly hundred percent owned by Malaysian industrialist T Ananda Krishnan.......," Swamy told ANI in New Delhi.

"Now, who enabled that, FIPB had put it up for signature with the provision that the matter would be according to law. But Chidambaram never went into it, he immediately signed. Today, he is blaming officers to putting up the file with him. This is not the job of Minister to blindly sign what officers put before him and certainly not Chidambaram who is suppose to be a lawyer," he added.

The BJP leader, who is also the petitioner in the case, further said the matter will be heard in the Supreme Court on September 25.

"Chidambaram is complicit in all this and therefore the CBI has to now investigate him and then file a fresh supplementary chargesheet. The matter is coming in the Supreme Court on my petition on 25th of September," he said.

The CBI will probe the circumstances of the FIPB approval given by Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006.

According to reports, the investigating agency told a special court in its chargesheet in the Aircel-Maxis case that Mauritius-based Global Communication Services Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Maxis, had sought approval for 800 million US dollars for which the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs was competent to do so.

Chidambaram has, however, said that there was no violation of rules in the grant of FIPB approval to Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006.