A day after former finance minister P. Chidambaram strongly spoke in defence of his son Karti Chidambaram, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy slammed the former, saying that Karti, being a married person with a family, is grown up enough to speak for himself.
"What is pathetic is that this man (Chidambaram) should know that he is now grown up enough to have a son, who is married and produced a child. Why should he speak on his (Karti) behalf. He can speak on his own behalf but he cannot speak on his son's behalf. Why does his son evade the summons of the Enforcement Directorate (ED)? Why can't he go and say this before the ED? Therefore, Chidambaram has got the fright and he is making all kinds of silly statements," Swamy told ANI.
Countering Chidamabaram's Rs. 10 lakh gratification amount claim, Swamy said that funds came for other companies also.
"The issue is that because of his father, immediately afterwards the gainers paid money to him (Karti) in his consulting firms. He may say Rs. 10 lakhs, but that is only in one company. Rs. 3 crore came for that chess management company also," Swamy said.
"He (Karti) doesn't need to influence his secretaries because the approving authority is his father. All the six secretaries have done is put it in the shortlist for consideration. At most you can say is that they did a bad job," he added.
Chidambaram yesterday asserted that his son had never met any officer connected with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), adding that the course of law will expose the mischief makers.
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Chidambaram said he has asked his son to fully co-operate with the investigation and he would do so.
"I can say with absolute certainty that Karti Chidambaram had never met any officer connected with the FIPB. Besides, he had no connection with the applicant company (INX Media/INX News)," Chidambaram said in a statement.
Terming it as the 'most ridiculous allegation', Chidambaram said, "that the so-called gratification was a cheque for Rs 10 lakhs -- I repeat, a cheque for Rs 10 lakhs."
"The subject matter of the FIR is an approval granted by the FIPB. It is clear that I am the target, yet the FIR does not name me. The FIR alleges that there was a conspiracy involving public officials who were induced by corrupt and illegal means to grant the approval, yet the FIR does not name a single public official," he said.
An FIR was lodged against Karti, Indrani Mukerjea, unknown officers of FIPB Unit of Ministry of Finance and others over alleged financial misappropriation over Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to Peter and Indrani's media company INX Media in 2008.
The charges include criminal conspiracy, cheating, taking gratification in order by corrupt or illegal means to influence public servant and criminal misconduct.
The case has been registered under section 120-B r/w, section 420, section 8 and section 13(2) r/w and 13 (1) (d) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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