ED attaches Rs 54 crore Karti properties in India, UK

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday attached assets worth Rs 54 crore of Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram, in India, the United Kingdom and Spain in connection with its probe pertaining to the INX Media money laundering case.

The ED issued an order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for provisional attachment of agricultural land and bungalow in Kodaikanal and Ooty in Tamil Nadu and a Rs 16 crore flat in south Delhi’s Jorbagh which is in the name of Karti and his mother, Nalini Chidambaram. Karti, the central probe agency claimed, has a 50 per cent share in this property.

Karti, through his official Twitter handle, reacted to the order and said, “A bizarre and outlandish provisional attachment order which is not based on law of facts but on crazy conjectures. This is meant only to grab headlines. The order will not withstand judicial scrutiny, review, appeal. Will approach the appropriate legal forum”.

The agency further claimed that “the assets are in the name of Karti and Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL), the firm allegedly linked to him”.

The attached assets amount to Rs 54 crore, said the statement issued by the agency. In the UK, the ED attached a Rs 8.67 crore cottage and house in Somerset (in the name of ASCPL) and a tennis club valued at over Rs 14.57 crore in Barcelona, Spain, have also been attached as part of the same order, the agency said. Fixed deposits worth Rs 90 lakh, in a bank in Chennai, in the name of ASCPL have also been attached, said the order.

“Investigation conducted so far shows that for FIPB approval, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea met the then finance minister P. Chidambaram so that there was no hold up or delay in their application. P. Chidambaram asked for his son’s business interests to be kept in mind. ED identified payments of Rs 3.09 crore by Peter Mukerjea to ASCPL and associated entities controlled by Karti P. Chidambaram through manipulated debit notes. During investigation, it was admitted that debit notes were raised on the directions of Karti Chidambaram to show some transaction which in fact did not occur,” the ED alleged. It said the money so received by associated entities was routed back into ASCPL.

The Central probe agency had registered a case under the provisions of PMLA 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 P. Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.