Enforcement Directorate raids Karti Chidambaram’s office in Chennai

Karti issued a statement saying that there was no basis for the agency to visit his office.

Chennai

: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday raided former Finance Minister P. Chadambaram's son Karti's office in Chennai.

The reason for the raids are unknown, though Karti issued a statement saying that there was no basis for the agency to visit his office.

“Neither I nor any of my family members have any connections with the said firms,” said Karti Chidambaram, son of Congress leader P Chidambaram, on the ED raids.

Earlier, on December 2, a joint team of ED and Income Tax officials raided firms allegedly connected to Karti in Chennai.

Sources said, -"certain companies-" including a private eye care chain in which Karti Chidambaram allegedly had a stake, were being searched by the two agencies.

They said while the I-T had undertaken the action on charges of suspected tax evasion by these firms, the ED was a part of the searches in connection with their investigation under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

In August Enforcement Directorate had issued summons to two directors of a firm linked to Karti in connection with its money laundering and hawala probe in the Aircel-Maxis case. Sources said the summons were sent to the firm 'Advantage Strategic' after the agency's probe found that Rs 26 lakh has been sent from the firm to Aircel Televentures.

The Aircel-Maxis deal is being probed by both ED and CBI and the case is a part of the overall probe in the 2G scam case.