Former Union minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram has been asked to vacate his New Delhi home that had earlier been seized in the INX corruption case. Karti has been given ten days’ time to hand over the possession of property.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday (July 31) directed former Union minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram to vacate his home in Delhi's Jor Bagh, which was earlier seized in the INX Media corruption case. The property was attached by the probe agency in October last year.
A notice issued by probe agency said that Karti Chidambaram must hand over the possession of the property within 10 days of the receipt of the notice. According to sources, the property was jointly owned by Karti Chidambaram and his mother Nalini.
The property will be at the disposal of the probe agency until further orders and kept intact for further proceedings under the act, Enforcement Directorate counsel Nitesh Rana said.
Karti Chidambaram had managed to obtain clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for INX Media to get Rs. 305 crores in overseas funds when they only had clearance for Rs 4 crore. P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister at that time.
After that, the probe agency had filed a money laundering case against the company's founders, Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Karti had filed a plea before the Supreme Court seeking the return of Rs 10 crore that he had deposited in the court’s registry before flying abroad, but the apex court dismissed the plea.
Karti claimed he had taken the money on loan and is paying interest on it.
In May, Karti Chidambaram won from the Sivaganga constituency in Tamil Nadu against his closest opponent from the BJP, H Raja, by over 3 lakh votes. Karti secured 5,66,104 votes whereas Raja managed to get 2,33,860 votes.
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