ED summons former Union Minister Chidambaram for UPA-era aviation scam

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned former Union Minister P Chidambaram in connection with its money-laundering probe involving Air India during the UPA rule, officials said on Monday.

During the Congress-led UPA rule, the government had purchased 111 aircraft for Air India, the central agency wanted to question Chidambaram about this deal. 

P Chidambaram, a former finance minister and senior Congress leader has been asked to depose before the ED on August 23. 

According to PTI reports, the case pertains to losses suffered by Air India due to an alleged multi-crore aviation scam. It is alleged that the scam relates to a number of irregularities including the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines in 2007. 

Former Union Aviation Minister Praful Patel was also summoned by the ED and now the central agency wants to question Chidambaram.

In an interview to one of the media channel, Patel said that the purchase of aircraft deal was cleared by an EGOM (empowered group of ministers) headed by P Chidambaram and the merger was cleared by an EGOM headed by Pranab Mukherjee. 

The case involves the purchase of 68 aircraft from Boeing and 48 aircraft from Airbus which costed more than Rs 70,000 in 2007. 

He is also being probed by ED in two different money-laundering cases of Aircel-Maxis and INX Media. In this case, Chidambaram's son- Karti Chidambaram, was also summoned by ED.