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A special court on Thursday pardoned jailed-media baron Indrani Mukerjea in the INX Media corruption case and allowed her to turn approver to support the prosecution case in which former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti are accused.
The court also issued a warrant requiring the presence of Mukerjea on July 11 to go through the relevant documents about her turning an approver in the case and give her consent.
She is currently lodged in Byculla jail, Mumbai, in her daughter Sheena Bora's murder case. Her husband Peter Mukerjea, the company's founder, is also in jail in the same case. They are facing trial for allegedly conspiring to kill Bora, Indrani's daughter from an earlier relationship, in April 2012.
Special judge Arun Bhardwaj pardoned Indrani Mukerjea, an accused in the INX case, after she submitted that she voluntarily agreed to become an approver in the case.
Their names had cropped up in the case involving Rs 305 crore, which relates to Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval granted in 2007 for receipt of funds by INX Media.
Responding to the application, the Central Bureau of Investigation had earlier told the court that the agency had come across evidence, in the form of conversations, to which only Indrani Mukerjee is privy and will help consolidate the case.
Karti Chidambaram, elected MP from Shivaganga, Tamil Nadu, is on bail in the case. The former Union minister's anticipatory bail plea is pending before the Delhi high court.
The CBI had registered an FIR in the case on May 15, 2017 alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to the media group for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram's tenure as finance minister.
Thereafter, ED also lodged the money laundering case against the company's founders Peter Mukerjea, former media baron and his wife Indrani, and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.