Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate today said it has attached assets worth Rs 54 crore of Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in India, UK and Spain in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.
Sources said a property of Chidambaram in Delhi too has also been attached. The central probe agency issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for attachment of Indian assets in Kodaikanal and Ooty in Tamilnadu and a flat in Delhi’s Jorbagh.
A cottage and house in Somerset in UK and a tennis club located in Barcelona, Spain have also been attached as part of the same order, the agency said.
Fixed Deposits worth Rs 90 lakh, kept in a bank in Chennai, in the name of Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL) have also been attached, it said.
The assets are in the name of Karti and ASCPL, the firm allegedly linked to him, it said. āThe attached assets collectively amount to Rs 54 crore,ā it said.
The ED had registered a PMLA case in this deal case on the basis of a CBI FIR and had alleged that irregularities took place in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. The ED had grilled Karti in this case in the past.
It may be recalled that a Delhi Court Monday extended till 1 November the interim protection from arrest granted to former Chidambaram and Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case filed by the CBI and the ED.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini put up the matter for 1 November after the counsel appearing for agencies sought an adjournment in the matter. Advocates appearing for the CBI and the ED, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Nitesh Rana, told the court that the agencies required time to file a detailed reply and argue on the application filed through Chidambaram’s lawyers P K Dubey and Arshdeep Singh.
Chidambaram and his son were named in the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case on 19 July.
The agency filed a supplementary charge sheet before the special judge, who will consider it on next date.
The CBI is probing how Chidambaram, who was the Union finance minister in 2006, granted a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval to a foreign firm, when only the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) was empowered to do it.
‘Bizarre order, will approach appropriate legal forum’
Reacting to the order, Karti tweeted: ‘A bizarre and outlandish ĀProvisional Attachment OrderĀ which is not based on law or facts but on crazy conjectures. This is meant only to grab ĀheadlinesĀ. The āorderā will not withstand judicial scrutiny, review or appeal. Will approach the appropriate legal forum.’