Team News Riveting
New Delhi, April 18
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached assets worth Rs 11.04 crore of Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Karti Chidambaram in connection to an INX Media money laundering case.
The central economic intelligence agency attached four properties which include three movable and one immovable property in Karnataka’s Coorg district.
A provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been issued against Karti, the statement issued by the agency said. Karti Chidamabaram, son of former union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidamabaram, is a sitting MP from the Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu.
He was arrested in the INX case both by the CBI as well as the ED. The case pertains to alleged illegal gratification received ‘directly or indirectly’ from INX Media Pvt Limited to which Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval was granted during the tenure of his father as Union finance minister in the UPA government.
The FIPB was scrapped by the Narendra Modi government in 2017. The ED had said, “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 added.
The agency alleged that the total proceeds of crime laundered over a period of time in this case are Rs 65.88 crore.
