The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has attached properties to the tune of Rs 11.04 crore belonging to Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case, reports The Indian Express.
“Out of four attached properties, one is an immovable asset located in Coorg district of Karnataka. The ED issued a provisional order under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for attaching the assets worth Rs 11.04 crore,” a spokesperson of the federal agency said.
The 51-year-old leader and son of Congress leader P Chidambaram 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 (foreign investment promotion board)approval to INX Media group. It alleged that INX media got its FIPB, which was scapped by the Modi government in 2017, approvals in 2007-08 when P Chidambaram was serving as the Union finance minister in the UPA government.
Agencies 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, adding that the total proceeds of crime laundered over a period of time are Rs 65.88 crore.
In 2021, the ED filed a chargesheet in the case in which it said that emails were recovered from seized digital devices that disclose Karti used to consult his father regarding matters related to a company -Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL) – “beneficially owned” by him in the past and involved in this case.