According to an exclusive report by Rohini Singh for The Wire, former television executive and prime accused in the INX Media case, Peter Mukerjea has given a statement to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) claiming that billionaire Mukesh Ambani and his “family and friends” owned INX Media.

The accused, Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani Mukerjea had earlier given statements against Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his son, Karti Chidambaram. Resulting from these statements, the Congress heavyweight and his son had been jailed.

According to The Wire‘s report, Mukerjea told the ED that Ambani was in touch with Chidambaram and his son directly and that their daily dealings with Reliance were carried out through his executives.

Also Read: Love/Death and Scandal in Bombay

“His statement assumes significance because it implies that the bribe the ED alleges was paid to Karti was done for an Ambani firm – if indeed Ambani was the owner of the firm Mukerjea and his wife represented, as Mukerjea told investigators,” Singh writes in the report.

Peter Mukerjea, was the Chief Strategy Officer of INX Media from 2007 till his retirement in 2009. On November 2015, he was arrested by the CBI in relation with the Sheena Bora murder case and was released on bail on 20th March this year.

Sheena Bora went missing on the 24th of April, 2012 and the Mumbai Police arrested her mother Indrani Mukerjea, her stepfather Sanjeev Khanna and Mukerjea’s driver, Shyamvar Pinturam Rai for the alleged abduction and murder of Sheena Bora.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the CBI had made a reference to reports that Rs 900 crores were siphoned off by the Mukerjea’s during the INX News Pvt Ltd selloff. “Reliable information has been received that the company M/S 9X Media Pvt Ltd being run by the accused, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, carried out its internal audit in which nine companies, having share-holding as on date 31.03.2009, were found and alleged to have instances of misallocation and siphoning off of substantial amount of funds by the accused,” the CBI had said in its remand application seeking further custody of Peter Mukerjea to a Mumbai Court as per the IE article dated December 24, 2015.

Also Read: Peter Mukerjea’s Halycon Days