Assets of Karti, firm attached

New Delhi, September 25

The ED today attached assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti and a firm allegedly linked to him in connection with its money laundering probe in the Aircel-Maxis deal.

The agency issued a provisional attachment order, signed by Joint Director and investigating officer of the 2G spectrum allocation cases Rajeshwar Singh, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for attaching the assets.

“The Enforcement Directorate has attached movable assets held by ASCPL (Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited) in the form of fixed deposits to the tune of Rs 26 lakh and moveable assets held by Karti P Chidambaram in the form of fixed deposits and balance in saving bank account to the tune of Rs 90 lakh approximately,” the agency said.

The firm ASCPL is allegedly linked to Karti and the ED said it was “controlled” by him through another person, identified as S Bhaskararaman, whom Karti had described to the agency as his chartered accountant and chief financial officer, the agency said. The senior Chidambaram called the ED action “a crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures”. Official sources in the ED said while P Chidambaram stated that the “only” chargesheet in the case has been quashed, the FIR still stood and that Karti was not named in that complaint. “This is a fresh probe against Karti in connection with the Aircel-Maxis case,” a source said.

The case pertains to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2006 by P Chidambaram. The agency said it was investigating “the circumstances of said FIPB approval granted by the then Finance Minister (P Chidambaram)”. — PTI