P Chidambaram raids 'malicious onslaught' against his family

Firms owned by Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, were raided in a joint operation by Enforcement Directorate and income tax department today.

The raids conducted in Chennai was in connection with the funding of companies owned by Karti. The income tax department is probing how Vasan Group transferred 1.5 lakh shares to Karti at a very low rate. While the ED is looking into angle of foreign funding of Vasan Group.

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In August, ED had issued summons to two directors of Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, a company linked to Karti. This company had a financial transaction of Rs 26,00,444 with Aircel in early 2006, when Malaysian company Maxis' proposal to acquire the majority stake in Aircel was pending with the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

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Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited was later taken over by a company owned by Karti. The two persons summoned were said to be Karti's close friends.

Chidambaram's name was dragged into the Aircel-Maxis scam after the expose that there was a flow of Rs 26,00444 to Aircel by Advantage Strategic Consulting. The deal was exposed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in April 2012.

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In the Aircel-Maxis case, ED had in December last year questioned former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi after the agency had probed all the financial transactions of their Sun Network group companies.