ED attaches Cong MP Karti Chidamabaram's Rs 11-crore properties

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached properties to the tune of Rs 11.04 crore belonging to Congress MP Karti Chidambaram in the INX money laundering case, an official statement said.

The ED said that out of four attached properties, one is an immovable asset located in Coorg district of Karnataka.

The ED issued a provisional order, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), for attaching the assets worth Rs 11.04 crore. Karti Chidambaram, 51, is the son of former Union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram and is a sitting Congress MP from Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu. He was arrested in the INX case by the ED as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The ED had filed a criminal case under the PMLA in 2017 to probe alleged irregularities in the grant of FIPB approval to INX Media group. INX Media got its FIPB (foreign investment promotion board) approvals in 2007-08 when P Chidambaram was serving as the Union finance minister in the UPA government. It is alleged that this approval was not legal and agencies have charged P Chidambaram with committing corruption and money laundering by taking kickbacks from the promoters of the media group, Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, through his son Karti.

The FIPB was scrapped by the Modi government in 2017. It was found, the ED said, that "illegal gratification (proceeds of crime) was received directly and indirectly from M/s INX Media Pvt. Ltd., to which accused P Chidambaram had granted FIPB approval, through several shell companies controlled/beneficially owned/used by another accused Karti P Chidambaram."

"Illegal gratification was received in the company of the accused in the name of providing consultancy by the entities from INX Media," it said.

The agency alleged that the total proceeds of crime laundered over a period of time in this case are Rs 65.88 crore. "The money was routed to overseas accounts and investment was made in various overseas properties and shares of companies through various shell companies directly or indirectly controlled by Karti P Chidambaram and through his confidants," it alleged.

The ED had filed a charge sheet in this case in 2021 in which it said that emails were recovered from seized digital devices that disclose Karti used to consult his father regarding matters related to a company -Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL) - "beneficially owned" by him in the past and involved in this case.