The Enforcement Directorate (ED) found a ‘confidential’ CBI report on the 2G scam in the house of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Delhi, when they raided the same on 13 January, sources told ANI.
According to the ED, the report they found was an unsigned copy, which indicates that it was leaked from the CBI.
This is highly problematic, since the CBI had reportedly submitted this report in a sealed cover to a double bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices GS Singhvi and K Radhakrishnan on 1 August 2013 says Economic Times.
ANI adds that the ED went on to inform the CBI about the unsigned report, and the latter has reportedly verified the content of the same. Following this, the CBI launched an inquiry into how this report had reached the house of Chidambaram, who was also the Union Minister in the UPA-2 cabinet when it had originally been presented before the Supreme Court.
In response to this development, a top official of the ED reportedly told Economic Times that the report which was found in Chidambaram’s house was an “unsigned draft” and contained the parts of the CBI report presented to the apex court, that dealt with the Aircel-Maxis deal.
He also said that it was possible that the leak of the report took place before the concerned CBI officials had put their signature on it, the Economic Times report adds.
It may have been the case that the leak happened before concerned CBI officers put their signature on the draft.The senior official from the ED told Economic Times
He also added that the content of the documents seems to match that of the CBI’s actual status report which was presented before the double bench of the Supreme court in 2013.
The discovery of this leaked report comes in the midst of the CBI’s ongoing probe into whether Chidambaram's son, Karti Chidambaram, had benefitted from the FIPB clearance to the Aircel-Maxis deal back in 2006, when his father was the Union Finance Minister.
The ED on 13 January had conducted searches at multiple premises linked to Karti Chidambaram, in connection with its money laundering probe in the Aircel-Maxis case.
Chidambaram has maintained that there was no wrongdoing on their part and that the clearance procedure in question followed the standard protocol.
(With inputs from ANI and Economic Times)
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