The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday cracked the whip on former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis scam by conducting raids in Chennai and Kolkata, including at the premises of brother-in-law of the former Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Chidambaram’s wife Nalini’s brother Sadayavel Kailasam’s home and office were also raided after the money trail with Karti linked firms were established, said ED officials. ED raids started in the morning while Karti was on his way to London.
“Documents, computer hardware like Compact Disks (CD)s and Disk Drives have been recovered during the searches that are going on,” a senior official said. The others being searched in the Tamil Nadu capital have been identified as Sujay Sambamoorthy and Ramji Natarajan.
Two locations of industrialist Manoj Mohanka at Lee road and Lovelock Place in Kolkata are also being raided, they said. Mohanka’s firm Arteva Digital was also found money trail with Chidambaram’s son Karti’s firm Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited. Advantage’s Singapore subsidy had 60 lakh shares in Arteva Digital’s London based subsidiary in 2008. In 2008, Arteva Digital was a subsidiary of Network 18 Group, a leading TV channel group. The ED suspects these people of having financial links in the Aircel-Maxis case, they said.
PGurus in March 2017 reported in detail about Karti’s money trails with Arteva Digital[1]:
The ED case pertains to the FIPB illegal approval granted in 2006 by P Chidambaram. The agency had said it is investigating “the circumstances of the said FIPB approval granted by the then finance minister Chidambaram”. In September, it had attached assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of Karti and a firm allegedly linked to him, in this case.
The ED also alleged that Karti had “disposed” of a property in Gurgaon, which he had allegedly rented out to a multinational company “to whom Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) approval had been granted in 2013”.
It charged that Karti had “also closed certain bank accounts and attempted to close other bank accounts in order to frustrate the process of attachment” under the PMLA. The ED is probing the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognizance of a 2011 CBI FIR in the case.
Former Finance Minister and son are now facing two cases each registered by CBI and ED in connection with the illegalities in the FIPB approvals given to Maxis and INX Media. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) also started probing on the illegal assets in 14 countries and 21 undeclared foreign bank accounts of Chidambaram and family members. PGurus have detailed the list of illegal properties across the World in the article titled as “Chidambara Rahasya[2]”.
[1] Peter Mukerjea & Raghav Bahl’s media companies bribed Karti Chidambaram… – Mar 21, 2017, PGurus.com
[2] Chidambara Rahasya – Details of huge secret assets… – Mar 15, 2017, PGurus.com
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[…] Aircel-Maxis: ED raids in Chennai and Kolkata to trace money laundering… Dec 1, 2017, […]
Modi is weak against the lobbying power of Arun Jaitley and that is why Chindambaram family is still out and all of Swamy’s marathon efforts have not fruited.
Hope Modi will some day come out of his easy zone and marketing tactics and behave like a leader… a true leader
All important trails have been erased. All accounts have been shifted. Records and evidences of ‘trillions of loot’ have been destroyed beyond redemption. Decks have also been cleared for Kartik to flee the country. Now what is this show of RAIDS & INVESTIGATIONS?
Very good comment
Could not agree more!
BJP is falling onto the same trap.
They are losing support of the people!
Sad!