The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted searches at half-a-dozen locations in Tamil Nadu in connection with its money laundering probe connected to alleged irregularities in the issuance of visas to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011, in which Congress MP Karti Chidambaram is also an accused.
Officials said the premises of some companies and their promoters are being searched in Chennai and nearby areas. The ED had initiated a probe in May and filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR in the same case. The case relates to allegations of Rs 50 lakh being paid as kickbacks to Karti and his close associate S Bhaskararaman by a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. (TSPL), which was setting up a power plant in Punjab, according to the CBI FIR.
The CBI had then searched the premises of the Chidamabram family and arrested Bhaskararaman even as Karti Chidambaram was questioned by it. Karti Chidambaram, 50, a Congress MP from the Sivaganga constituency in Tamil Nadu, has denied the allegations and said in a statement that "if this is not harassment, not a witch hunt, then what is."