The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted raids in Chennai and Kolkata, including at the premises of brother-in-law of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in connection with its money laundering probe in the Aircel-Maxis case. Chidambaram's wife Nalini's brother Sadyavel Kailasam's home was also raided after the money trail with Karti linked firms were established, said ED officials.
"Documents, computer hardware like CDs and disk drives have been recovered during the searches that are going on," a senior official said. The others being searched in the Tamil Nadu capital have been identified as S Sambamoorthy and Ramji Natarajan.
Two locations of industrialist Manoj Mohanka at lee road and lovelock Place in Kolkata are also being raided, they said. Mohanka's firm Arteva Digital was also found money trail with Chidambaram's son Karti's firm Advantage Strategic Consulting Private limited. Advantage's Singapore subsidy had 60 lakh shares in Arteva Digital's london based subsidiary in 2008. In 2008, Arteva Digital was subsidiary of Network 18 Group, a leading TV channel group. The ED suspects these people of having financial links in the Aircel-Maxis case, they said.
The ED case pertains to the FIPB approval granted in 2006 by P Chidambaram. The agency had said it is investigating "the circumstances of the said FIPB approval granted by the then finance minister Chidambaram". In September, it had attached assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of Karti and a firm allegedly linked to him, in this case.
The ED also alleged that Karti had "disposed" of a property in Gurgaon, which he had allegedly rented out to a multinational company "to whom foreign direct investment (FDI) approval had been granted in 2013".It charged that Karti had "also closed certain bank accounts and attempted to close other bank accounts in order to frustrate the process of attachment" under the PMlA. The ED is probing the case under the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA) after taking cognisance of a 2011 CBI FIR in the case.
Meanwhile, Karti on Friday morning left to london, after getting clearance from Supreme Court. The former Finance Minister and son are now facing two cases each registered by CBI and ED in connection with the illegalities in the FIPB approvals.