Aircel-Maxis: ED raids locations linked to Karti
NEWDELHI: Financial crime investigationagency,theEnforcement Directorate (ED), on Saturday conducted searches at multiple placeslinkedtoaprobeinvolving P Chidambaram’s son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case.
The raids were conducted at four places in Chennai and a few in Delhi, including the senior Congress leader’s residence in Jorbagh.Acharteredaccountant and Karti’s personal assistant were also raided by ED sleuths.
EDofficialswithknowledgeof Saturday’s raids said the raids yieldedincriminatingdocuments and computer hard disks.
Chidambaram, however, dismissed the raids at his house as a “comedy of errors”.
On December 1, the agency conducted similar searches on the premises of a relative of Karti and others in the case that deals with allegations that P Chidambaram did not follow protocol to approve a ₹600-crore deal between telecom player Aircel andtheMalaysia-headquartered Maxis group in 2006.
The ED alleges that Karti received kickbacks for facilitating the investment to flow into India from the Maxis group.
The agency says that Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval was granted by the former finance minister though he was authorised to approve project proposals only up to ₹600 crore. Beyond that he requiredtheapprovaloftheCabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
Chidambaramdeniedthatany documents were retrieved from his residence.
“Since they had the search warrant,Ididnotraiseanyobjections to the search but I said I will recordmyprotestthatthereisno FIR in respect of the scheduled crime registered by any investigating agency including the CBI,” the former minister said. ED officials said said that both CBI and ED have filed FIRs in the Aircel-Maxis case.
“The initial probe into AircelMaxis was to see if there was a forced sale of Aircel to the Maxis Group.Butwehaveinformedthe courts that other angles in the case are also under probe. This case involving Karti is one such angle,” said an ED officer.
Thedirectorateisalsoprobing other allegations of money launderingagainstKartiina2007sale ofstakesinINXMediatooffshore entities.
INX media was founded by Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani,bothofwhomarefacing trial for allegedly murdering her daughter from a previous relationship.