Mumbai: Former bureaucrat Ashok Chawla resigned as chairman of the National Stock Exchange with immediate effect, the bourse said on Friday, hours after the CBI said the Centre has granted sanction to prosecute him in the Aircel-Maxis case. The exchange, while making the announcement on Friday night, did not provide specific details. Chawla quit as Yes Bank chairman in November last year.
The CBI, earlier in the day, informed a Delhi court that the Centre has granted sanction to prosecute five people, including serving and former bureaucrats, accused in the Aircel-Maxis case involving Congress leader and ex-Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti. The then members of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), against whom sanctions have been obtained, are the then secretary (economic affairs) Ashok Jha, the then additional secretary Ashok Chawla, the then joint secretary in finance ministry Kumar Sanjay Krishna, the then director in the ministry Dipak Kumar Singh, and the then undersecretary in the ministry Ram Sharan.
Of the five, three are working with various government departments while two have retired. The CBI is probing how Chidambaram, who was the Union Finance Minister in 2006, granted FIPB approval to a foreign firm, when only the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs was empowered to do it. (Input News 18).
