The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached assets worth over ₹11 crore belonging to Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and others in connection with alleged INX media money laundering case. The seized assets include both movable and immovable properties in Karnataka’s Coorg district, according to a statement.
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According to the agency, ED has initiated proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act – PMLA against Karti Chidambaram M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL) and others.
The ED issued a provisional order, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), for attaching the assets worth Rs 11.04 crore. Karti Chidambaram, 51, is the son of former Union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram and is a sitting Congress MP from Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu. He was arrested in the INX case by the ED as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The ED had filed a criminal case under the PMLA in 2017 to probe alleged irregularities in the grant of FIPB approval to INX Media group. INX Media got its FIPB (foreign investment promotion board) approvals in 2007-08 when P Chidambaram was serving as the Union finance minister in the UPA government. It is alleged that this approval was not legal and agencies have charged P Chidambaram with committing corruption and money laundering by taking kickbacks from the promoters of the media group, Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, through his son Karti.
The FIPB was scrapped by the Modi government in 2017.
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