Chidambaram slams ED’s ‘wild allegations’

Says agency is trying to smear his son

P. Chidambaram and Karti Chidambaram. File photo

Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Tuesday accused the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of making wild allegations against his son Karti Chidambaram in an alleged forex violation case.

In a statement, the former Finance and Home Minister said the ED’s press release issued on Monday did not refer to any specific act on the part of Mr. Karti Chidambaram.

Instead, he said, it made the “extraordinary and ridiculous” allegation that Mr.Karti Chidambaram “appears to be the controller and ultimate beneficiary” of certain transactions of two companies.

“What does ‘appears to be’ mean? It means that the ED is making a wild allegation just to drag him into the case,” Mr. Chidambaram said.

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A show cause notice was issued by the ED to Mr. Karti Chidambaram and a firm purportedly linked to him for alleged FEMA violations of Rs. 45 crore.

A similar notice was issued to Chennai based M/s Vasan Health Care Private Limited for alleged forex violation of Rs 2,262 crore.

The ED, in a statement, said, “The total amount of contravention identified on different counts and found to have been committed by M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited in the sale transaction of shares of Vasan Health Care to overseas investors is around Rs 45 crore.”

“A show cause notice has been issued to M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, its directors and also to Karti P Chidambaram who appears to be the controller and ultimate beneficiary in these transactions,” it said.

Mr. Chidambaram said the two companies have, in the past, explained their transactions and repeatedly clarified through their statements that Mr. Karti Chidambaram was “never a shareholder or a director” of either of the companies.

“As I said yesterday, if a notice is served upon Karti, a suitable reply will be sent,” he said.

This was Mr. Chidambaram’s second statement in as many days.

On Monday, Mr.Chidambaram said that by targeting Mr. Karti Chidambaram with “baseless notices” the government cannot silence his voice or stop his writing.