INX Media case: Court reserves order on granting pardon to Indrani Mukerjea

A Delhi court will pronounce its order on May 29 on whether to grant pardon to Indrani Mukerjea, an accused in the INX Media corruption case in which former Union minister P Chidambaram is also an accused.

Mukerjea was produced before Special Judge Anurag Sain on Thursday after being brought from Mumbai's Byculla Jail, where she is lodged for the alleged murder of her daughter, Sheena Bora.

The court reserved the order after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted that it was in support of Mukerjea's plea to be made an approver as her statement would consolidate the evidence in the case.

During the hearing, the court asked Mukerjea if there was any pressure on her, which she denied.

"I am voluntarily willing to turn approver," she told the court.

Besides Mukerjea and Chidambaram, the name of the former finance minister's son, Karti, has also cropped up in the case involving an amount of Rs 305 crore, which relates to a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2007 for receipt of funds by INX Media.

The CBI had registered an FIR in the case on May 15, 2017 alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to the media group for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram's tenure as finance minister.

Thereafter, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also lodged a case against the company's founders -- former media baron Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani -- and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The Mukerjeas are facing trial in a Mumbai court for allegedly conspiring to kill Sheena Bora, Indrani's daughter from an earlier relationship, in April, 2012.