New Delhi, India
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted raids in Chennai and Kolkata, including at the premises of a relative of Congress leader P Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case, officials told PTI.
The raids at the premises of S Kailasam, the maternal uncle of Karti Chidambaram, the son of the former finance minister who is an accused in the case, sources told PTI.
The others being searched in the Tamil Nadu capital have been identified as S Sambamoorthy and Ramji Natarajan.
Karti stands accused of money laundering in the Aircel-Maxis transaction, a part of the bigger 2G spectrum case.
The ED case pertains to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2006 by P Chidambaram.
The agency had said it is investigating "the circumstances of the said FIPB approval granted by the then finance minister (P Chidambaram)".
The Enforcement Directorate also alleged that Karti has "disposed" of a property in Gurgaon, which he had allegedly rented out to a multinational company "to whom foreign direct investment (FDI) approval had been granted in 2013".
It charged that Karti had "also closed certain bank accounts and attempted to close other bank accounts in order to frustrate the process of attachment" under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The agency said FIPB approval in the Aircel-Maxis FDI case was granted in March, 2006 by the then FM even though he was competent to accord approval on project proposals only up to Rs 600 crore and beyond that it required the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
"In the instant case, the approval for FDI of 800 million USD (over Rs 3,500 crore) was sought. Hence, CCEA was competent to grant approval.
"However, approval was not obtained from CCEA," it alleged.
Chidambaram has previously denied the allegations against Karti.
(With inputs from PTI)