Enforcement Directorate has summoned former finance minister P Chidambaram in aviation scam case on Monday. The leader has been told to report to the investigative agency on August 23.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons Congress leader P. Chidambaram for questioning on 23rd August in connection with an alleged aviation scam during UPA rule. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/gO5RanVgsC
— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2019
The aviation scam is related to the involvement of corruption in giving favorable air traffic rights to foreign airlines. There were irregularities found in fixing the air slots for international airlines. This caused huge loss to the domestic carrier, Air India.
Previously, Enforcement Directorate had also found the involvement of Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel in the alleged scandal. Therefore, Praful Patel appeared before the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). He was called on by the agency for questioning the details of muti-crore scam of allotting Airline slots. On the basis of leads, now ED wants to quiz P Chidambaram.
Praful Patel was found to be in connection with aviation lobbyist Deepak Talwar who was framed in the case. The top investigative agency has recovered email conversations between them as evidence, which increased the suspicion of agency on the minister. During the timeframe of the alleged scam, Patel held the post of Civil Aviation Minister from 2004 to 2011.
The investigation began in August 2017 when CBI filed an FIR against Civil aviation Ministry officials and others.
P Chidambaram is also being probed by top investigative agency in two other money-laundering cases. These cases pertain to Aircel-Maxis and INX Media, in which his son Karti Chidambaram is also being questioned.
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