Attachment of assets must continue: Panel

The adjudicating authority of the PMLA on Tuesday held that ` 1.16 crore assets attached by the Enforcement Directorate ( ED) in the name of former finance minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti and a firm allegedly linked to him are involved in money laundering and ordered that the attachment of the assets should continue.

The ED had provisionally attached fixed deposits and bank balances in the name of Karti and a firm “indirectly controlled” by him in September last year. “Adjudicating authority of PMLA confirms attachment of assets worth ` 1.16 crore of Karti P Chidambaram and Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd in Aircel Maxis case,” the central probe agency said in a statement. The assets have been called as that involved in money laundering and the ED will soon seize them, sources in the ED said.

The ED, as part of the provisional order issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act last year, had attached ` 1.16 crore worth assets “of Karti in the form of fixed deposits and balance in banks.”