New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it has attached properties worth Rs 54 crore belonging to former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram and a firm in connection with the INX media money laundering case. Karti Chidambram described the agency’s move as “bizarre and outlandish” and said he would take legal action against it.
A senior ED official told IANS: “We have attached six properties of Karti worth Rs 54 crore.” The properties include a cottage worth Rs 8.67 crore in the UK’s Somerset, a tennis club and land located in Spain’s Gava worth Rs 14 crore.
Besides the foreign properties, the ED also attached land and properties worth Rs 16 crore in New Delhi’s Jor Bagh (Karti’s mother Nalini Chidambaram is a 50 per cent stakeholder in it), two bungalows in Tamil Nadu’s Ooty - one worth Rs 50 lakh and another Rs 3.75 crore - besides an agricultural land worth Rs 25 lakh in Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu.
Fixed Deposits belonging to the firm Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL) worth Rs 90 lakh kept in a Chennai bank were also attached. The assets are in the name of Karti Chidambaram and ASCPL, the firm allegedly linked to him. The ED has also attached properties belonging to Peter and Indrani Mukerjea in connection with the same case. (IANS)