Congress down plays CBI decision to question P Chidambram in 2G case

Congress today sought to downplay the questions about CBI's decision to probe then Finance Minister P Chidambaram's FIPB nod in Aircel-Maxis deal and his wife Nalini's examination by the agency in connection with alleged multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.

Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said that as far as Chidambaram was concerned, he does not think that there was any scope for him to add or substract much after Chidambaram's earlier clarification. Drawing attention to media reports, he said the allegation was a narrow one regarding date of clearance and jurisdiction.

Singhvi said that the clarification has come from a large number of officials of that time including the FIPB and very senior officials of Finance Ministry, who said that the value depends on whether you look at the face value or the value of investment. "It is very clear that if you look at face value it was rightly routed under the transaction of business rules to the then Finance Minister," Singhvi said adding "it will be unfair to fault a person who was following the rules namely the face value as a test then and acted accordingly and now to test him by investment value test which was changed much later.

"This is not me this has come in the public domain. It has come through from senior officials of the Finance Ministry," he said. The CBI has said that it will investigate the circumstances of the FIPB approval given by the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006.

Chidambaram, however, has maintained that there was no violation of rules in the grant of FIPB approval to Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006. Reacting to the CBI charge sheet regarding his decision in the Aircel-Maxis case, he said the file regarding the case was put up before him by officials and he approved it "in the normal course".

The AICC briefing also was questions being put to Singhvi regarding CBI examining Chidambaram's wife Nalini, a Supreme Court lawyer, evening in Chennai in connection with the legal fee paid to her by the Saradha group. 

"As far as Mrs Chidambram is concerned, this is a matter of fact. I don't think she is neither an accused nor a witness. Somebody in the CBI is alleged to have asked questions. She has given answers to the same and she has told the press also about the same. The rest is between her and the CBI. What is there to say?," Singhvi said.