INDIA. Mumbai: Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has attached Karti P Chidambaram’s (Son of former Union Minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram) four properties valued at Rs. 11.04 crore, located at Coorg District in Karnataka, in the INX Media Private Ltd case under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).
The properties include three movable and one immovable property, the ED statement issued on Tuesday read.
The INX Media scandal involves alleged anomalies in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted to media group INX Media to collect international money of Rs 307 crore at the time of the Congress-led UPA government.
In January 2008, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) of the Union finance ministry had flagged a foreign direct investment (FDI) of nearly Rs 307 crore by three Mauritius-based companies in INX Media, then owned by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.
The Income Tax department handed over the case to the ED, which in 2010 registered a case against INX Media for alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations.
In 2016, while investigating a company associated with Karti Chidambaram, ED found documents indicating payments made to Karti’s company- M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (ASCPL), by INX Media, with the finance ministry granting it FIPB approval. After this, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance. Subsequently, the ED lodged a money laundering case in 2018.
The ED initiated proceedings against Karti P. Chidambaram, M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (ASCPL), and others by filing an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) based on an FIR filed by the CBI for the committing of offences prohibited by certain provisions of the 1988 Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Following the ED probe, it was found that unlawful gratification (proceeds of crime) was obtained both directly and indirectly from M/s INX Media through a number of shell companies controlled, beneficially owned, or used by Karti P. Chidambaram, to which former Union Minister P. Chidambaram had granted FIPB approval.
In the company of the accused, Karti P. Chidambaram, illegal gratification was obtained under the pretence of offering to consult. Over a period of time, Rs 65.88 crore in criminal gains were laundered. The funds were transferred to foreign accounts, and investments were made in a variety of foreign real estate and stock through a number of front businesses that Karti P. Chidambaram directly or indirectly controlled.
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