Indrani's statement, recovery of invoices to help CBI corner Karti

The CBI will use Indrani Mukerjea's statement before a magistrate as well as digital evidence and invoices recovered during earlier searches to corner former finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti in the INX Media case.

Investigators are also not ruling out the possibility of summoning Chidambaram, who was the finance  minister in the UPA regime during which "fraudulent" clearance of foreign direct investment proposals in INX Media and some other companies took place, for questioning.

Sources said the statement of Indrani, who was the promoter of INX Media along with her husband Peter Mukerjea, includes claims that the couple met Chidambaram, who  reportedly asked them to help their son's business and later Karti seeking $1 million.

This statement will be treated as a evidence in the court as it is recorded under Section 164 of CrPC.

Though Karti's lawyer Abhishek Singhvi questioned the credibility of the statement as Indrani is in CBI custody in connection with the murder of her daughter, investigators are confident that they have enough evidence against Karti on other counts, too.

Sources said Indrani confirmed the payment of $7 lakh abroad while giving the statement.

Investigators had earlier recovered four invoices adding up to around $7 lakh from the hard disks of Bhaskaraman, Karti's CA, who was arrested by the ED in the case.

The invoices were drawn ASCPL, its Singapore subsidiary, another associate company Northstar Software Solutions Pvt Ltd and Geben Trading Ltd. Copies of invoices with Peter's signature were recovered from INX Media also.

Sources said one of the invoices raised by INX Media showed a payment of Rs 9.96 lakh (Rs 10 lakh plus taxes less TDS) to Advantage Strategic Consultancy Pvt Ltd (ASCPL), which the CBI claims is "indirectly" controlled by Karti, through a cheque dated July 15, 2008.

While the invoice issued by ASCPL claimed the service rendered was management consultancy, the ledger extract produced by INX Media showed that payment had been made for "reply towards FIPB notification and clarification". 

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