KARTI Chidambaram Arrested In Money Laundering Case: Congress Suffers Jolt For Attacking NDA Govt For Overlooking Corruption Charges

THE Economic offences’ Wing of the CBI on Wednesday arrested Karti Pa Chidambaram, 46, son of high profile Congress leader from Tamil Nadu P Chidambaram, at Chennai airport soon after he landed from London in connection with the INX money laundering case. He was allegedly destroying vital evidence related to the case. After arrest, he was questioned.CBI claims to have strong evidence to confirm his role in the cheating case. The high profile businessman’s chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman was arrested from a five-star hotel in Delhi on February 16. The CBI has filed a case against Karti Chidambaram after the Enforcement Directorate alleged irregularities in granting foreign direct investment clearance to the media company when his father was Finance Minister. Karti is accused of taking bribes to help the media company owned by Indrani and her husband Peter Mukerjea get foreign investments. The probe agency suspected that he received INR 3.5 crore through a front company. The Chidambarams have denied committed wrongdoing. The national investigative agency has alleged that Karti had received money from INX Media for manipulating the Feign Investment Board to help the media house receive investment from Mauritius. The CBI has said that it also seized vouchers of INR 10 lakh which were allegedly paid for the services. The Congress today said Karti’s arrest is a “classic diversionary tactic” adopted by the Modi government to distract people’s attention from the massive bank scam committed by diamond traders Nirav Modi and his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi. The BJP govt continues its vendetta and vindictive politics to target opponents. However, it will not stop the Congress from bringing the truth out to the people,” said the Congress. Former Union Minister P Chidambaram has moved the Supreme Court seeking stay on the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons against him in the INX Media case. He reportedly told the ED that he was appearing before the agency “under protest”. He was first grilled by the agency on January 18.The ED had earlier summoned Karti on February 2 after which he informed them he would be unable to depose as he had an interlocutory application pending in the Supreme Court in this case. The central probe agency had registered the case against Karti and others in May last year. It had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED’s equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in a CBI complaint, including Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors – Peter and Indrani Mukerjea. The INX Media case has been on the radar of investigative agencies from January 2008 when the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) flagged the foreign direct investment of over INR 305 crore by three Mauritius-based companies in INX Media Pvt Ltd.Incidentally, Chennai born Karti Chidambaram, an MBA & LLB  is involved in the country’s oldest political party All India Congress Committee.BJP MP from Mumbai Kirit Somaiya has tweeted that he has give notice to the Lok Sabha Secretariat to raise various allegations on corruption against Karti who had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Shivaganga in Tamil Nadu as a Congress candidate .(photo : Courtesy The Deccan Chronicle)