The Congress party has been mired with scams for as long as the party has been in existence. Currently, the top echelon of the party is out on bail. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are out on bail in the National Herald case while Robert Vadra is out on bail in the money laundering case. Congress leaders are not too far behind in their tryst with scams and impropriety. P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram have been embroiled in the INX Media scam.
Karti Chidambaram, who is currently out-on-bail has decided to contest on a Congress ticket from Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu. The election affidavit filed by Karti Chidambaram includes a long rap-sheet and crores worth of assets in his and his wife’s name.
In every election affidavit, one is required to disclose the ongoing cases against oneself and Karti Chidambaram’s affidavit does not fail to ‘impress’ on that count.
The charges listed by Karti Chidambaram in the first block of his cases, he has listen 4 cases. Among the cases, are investigations into whether he influenced officials to scuttle a probe and grant of FIPB approval in the INX Media case. In two cases, ED has registered an ECIR which is an enforcement case information report.
There is also a second page that lists additional cases against Karti Chidambaram.
Among his properties, there is one plush property in UK, Cambridge as well.
The affidavit shows that Karti Chidambaram and his wife Srinidhi Chidambaram own liabilities worth Rs 17.75 crore. Over 75% of these loans are in the form of personal loans from family members, including his father, mother-in-law Vasanthi Rangarajan and daughter Aditi. Karti and Srinidhi Chidambaram have taken loans worth Rs 13.81 crore from family members in the five-year period.
India Today report states:
In his statement, the 47-year-old Karti Chidambaram said that he has taken Rs 8 crore loan from his mother-in-law (Rs 1 crore), mother Nalini Chidambaram (Rs 6.45 crore) and Rs 1.47 crore from his daughter. Srinidi Chidambaram has taken Rs 2.03 crore loan from P Chidambaram, Rs 95 lakh loan from Karti Chidambaram , Rs 33.77 lakh from her mother Vasanthi and Rs 1.10 crore from her mother-in-law Nalini.
Assets, as declared in his affidavit, grew to Rs 80.26 crore from Rs 59.35 crore five years ago.
Both P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram are accused in the INX Media scam which involves charges of bribery and lobbying in granting foreign investments worth Rs 300 crores to INX Media. INX Media was later known as NewsX, it was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjee of the sensational Sheena Bora murder case. ED had initiated a probe on the basis of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s FIR. Chidambaram is accused of misusing his power as the finance minister to grant INX Media an FIPB clearance.
Karti was arrested by agencies last year in February for allegedly lobbying for the Mukerjees, in order to get FIPB clearance from Finance Ministry, which at the time was under his father. The ED had also attached properties and bank deposits of Karti Chidambaram worth around Rs.54 crores in connection with the case, in October last year.
Meanwhile, the CBI and other agencies are also probing a similar case involving Chidambaram and his son, the Aircel-Maxis scam. The CBI is probing alleged irregularities in grant of FIPB approval in Aircel-Maxis deal, while the ED is probing alleged money-laundering related to the deal.
