Chennai: The CBI on Tuesday morning conducted searches in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram and Chennai, including raids at the residences of former Union Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram here in Tamil Nadu.
The early morning raids at the former Finance and Home Minister’s residence were conducted in connection with Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearances given to INX Media (now called 9X Media) when it was run by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea, and Chidambaram was then the Finance Minister.
Separate Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) teams conducted searches at more than ten places in Tamil Nadu, besides carrying out over a dozen raids in Delhi, Mumbai and Haryana’s Gurugram.
The agency’s move comes a day after it filed an FIR against Karti Chidambaram and Indrani Mukherjea in the case.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been probing the involvement of Karti Chidambaram’s company for alleged foreign exchange violations.
The case — registered under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in 2010 — involves foreign investment by three Mauritius-based companies in INX Media.
The ED had earlier issued a show-cause notice to Karti Chidambaram and INX Media for alleged FEMA violations of over Rs 40 crore.
The ED also issued a similar notice to a Chennai-based firm, Vasan Health Care Private Limited, for alleged forex violations of over Rs 2,000 crore.
“The total amount of contravention identified on different counts and found to have been committed by Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited in the sale transaction of shares of Vasan Health Care to overseas investors is around Rs 45 crore,” the ED notice said.
“Show-cause notice has been issued to Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, its directors and also to Karti Chidambaram who appears to be the controller and ultimate beneficiary in these transactions,” it added.
A Television News channel reported that a total of at least 14 locations in Chidambaram’s home city of Chennai were searched by the CBI.
However, reacting to the said raids, Chidambaram accused the government of using the CBI and other agencies to target his son and his friends.
“The government, using the CBI and other agencies, is targeting my son and his friends. The government’s aim is to silence my voice and stop me from writing, as it has tried to do in the cases of leaders of Opposition parties, journalists, columnists, NGOs and civil society organizations. All I will say is, I shall continue to speak and write,” Chidambaram said in a statement after the raids.
“FIPB approval is granted in hundreds of cases. The five Secretaries who constitute the FIPB, the officials of the FIPB Secretariat and the competent authority in each case are the public officials. There is no allegation against any of them. There is no allegation against me. Every case was processed according to law and approval was granted or refused in accordance with the recommendations of the FIBP consisting of five Secretaries to the Government of India,” said the former finance minister.
According to reports, the Enforcement Directorate is investigating various aspects of the FIPB approval given in the Aircel-Maxis deal case, including the role of former finance minister P Chidamabarm, under anti-money laundering laws.
Here it may be mentioned that the ED had last month filed in a sealed cover, before the Supreme Court a status report of its ongoing investigation in this money laundering case.
Also in the apex court on April 3 during a brief hearing, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had told a bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud that he has received a reply from the CBI stating that it was probing “all angles”, including the FIPB clearance given to the deal by the then finance minister in 2006.