The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday conducted raids at former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and son Karti’s residences in Delhi, Chennai and hometown Karaikudi in connection with the Aircel-Maxis and INX Media probes. The raids started early in the early morning at 7:30 AM and ended at 11 AM. Rattled by the raid, Chidambaram who is in his Delhi home at Jor Bagh said that this was nothing but political vendetta and even claimed that the ED had no right to conduct raids.
The ED has already found in earlier raids that Karti linked companies Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited and Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd had accepted bribes in Aircel-Maxis and INX Media cases for the illegal FIPB approvals given by father Chidambaram.
“Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued notice on the cases filed by my son Karti Chidambaram. These cases have been filed some time ago, notices were issued yesterday and the respondents were asked to file their reply if they wish to and the cases posted for hearing on January 30. The main grounds in the case is that there is no First Information Report (FIR) in respect of a scheduled crime registered by any police agency including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),” said Chidambaram to the media in Delhi after the raid. He said he was expecting a raid from Delhi from yesterday after the Supreme Court (SC) notice to ED on the petition filed by his son. The former Finance Minister also claimed that the ED has no jurisdiction to conduct raids under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
“They raided my bedroom, kitchen and living room. They have taken some loose papers about Government’s position in Parliament on the subject (Aircel-Maxis scam) in 2012 or 2013. They get nothing and officers were embarrassed. They raided three times my Chennai home and got nothing,” he said without taking any questions from media.
Karti was not in the homes when the raids were happening. In Chennai home, his mother and wife were present. The ED has already found in earlier raids that Karti linked companies Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited and Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd had accepted bribes in Aircel-Maxis and INX Media cases for the illegal FIPB approvals given by father Chidambaram.
Karti’s companies accepted around $200,000 from Malaysian company Maxis, when the files of Maxis’ takeover of Aircel were with the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram. In the INX Media case, Karti’s firms accepted Rs.5 crores as bribe from INX Media promoters and the murder accused Peter and Indrani Mukherjeas. Both cases related to the illegal FIPB approvals given by Chidambaram as Finance Minister.
The ED and Income Tax in a joint raid in December 2015, unearthed illegal assets amassed in 14 countries and 21 foreign bank accounts by Chidambaram and family members. Those days an angry Chidambaram blamed ED’s Investigating Officer Rajeshwar Singh for unleashing attacks against him. In April 2017, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has exposed the illegal assets and foreign bank accounts of the family by producing the Income Tax assessment report. PGurus have published the entire data on this regard in an article titled as “Chidambara Rahasya[1].”
ED has now asked Karti to appear personally in Delhi office on January 16[2]. Karti has not yet appeared before ED even after repeated summons for the past one year. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had directed CBI and ED to submit a detailed status report of the probe in Aircel-Maxis scam by January 23[3]. Supreme Court in the previous hearing slammed CBI for seeking “some more time” to submit probe report in Aircel-Maxis scam.
References:
[1] Chidambara Rahasya – Details of huge secret assets and foreign bank accounts of Chidambaram family – Mar 15, 2017, PGurus.com
[2] Rejecting advocate’s versions, ED wants Karti to be personally present on January 16 – Jan 12, 2018, PGurus.com
[3] ED and CBI must file status report in Aircel-Maxis by January 23 – Jan 4, 2018, PGurus.com
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It is only a conjecture that Chidu is rattled. There is nothing to suggest Chidu is rattled either through his ‘appearance’ or through ‘bravado’.
I even strongly suspect that the ‘4 Judge drama’ – Part II of the earlier ‘award wapsi’ is a handwork of Chidu to divert the focus from the serious cases involving himself & family and exploit the situation to get ‘friendlier Judges’ assigned to his cases.
This Harward father-son know where to store before acquiring.