ED summons P Chidambaram in aviation scam

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has been summoned for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its money laundering probe related to the irregularities in Air India in which his former ministerial colleague Praful Patel was also quizzed.

Chidambaram, a senior Congress MP in Rajya Sabha, has been asked to appear before the investigators on August 23. Sources said the former minister's statement will be recorded then.

The ED had filed its case based on three CBI FIRs registered on 29 May 2017 related to decisions taken during the tenure of UPA government causing a loss of "tens of thousands of crore" of rupees to the exchequer.

One of the cases related to irregularities in the decision to buy 111 aircraft for Air India costing about Rs 70,000 crore to benefit foreign aircraft manufacturers. "Such a purchase caused an alleged financial loss to the already stressed national carriers," a CBI statement had then said.

The second one related to allegations of leasing of a large number of aircraft without due consideration, proper route study and marketing or price strategy. It was also alleged that the aircraft were leased even while the aircraft acquisition programme was going on.

The third case was related to allegations of giving up profit-making routes and profit-making timings of Air India in favour of national and international private airlines causing a huge loss to the national carrier. The CBI investigation on Air India withdrawing from profit-making sectors covers 12 international and domestic routes, including Bengaluru-Bhubaneswar and Bengaluru-Ahmedabad flights.

Patel was quizzed earlier by the ED while Chidambaram is also being probed by the ED in two separate money laundering cases of Aircel-Maxis and INX Media.

The ED had earlier filed a charge sheet in the Air India case in which it had named aviation consultant Deepak Talwar and claimed that both were in regular touch.

"He (Talwar) illegally managed to secure favourable traffic rights for these airlines during 2008-09 at the cost of the national carrier Air India," the ED has said earlier.