INX Media case: ED summons P Chidambaram's ex-PS again

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a fresh summons for appearance to a former private secretary of arrested Congress leader P Chidambaram in connection with the INX Media money-laundering case, officials said on Monday.

They said K V K Perumal was grilled twice by the central agency in the recent past.

He was now summoned to appear before the investigating officer of the case on September 18, they added.

Perumal served as the private secretary to Chidambaram when the latter was the Union finance minister, the officials said.

His statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) when he was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier, they added.

Some more information had been sought from Perumal and he had been summoned for the third time now, the officials said.

Chidambaram has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in this case. He is in judicial custody in Tihar Jail here currently.

The ED had filed a PMLA case in connection with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to INX Media in 2017, soon after the CBI filed its case on charges of corruption under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The ED has also questioned S Bhaskararaman, the chartered accountant of Chidambaram's son Karti, a co-accused in the case.

It is understood that as the central agency wants to prepare a firm ground before it seeks Chidambaram's custody, it is grilling a number of people linked to the case.

The INX Media group got its FIPB approvals in 2007-08.

The deal is being probed by the ED and the CBI on charges of money laundering and corruption respectively.

The FIPB was scrapped by the Modi government in 2017.