'I have not received any notice from any Govt agencies': Karti Chidambaram

Responses follow reports that CBI & ED registered a money laundering case against him in Ambulance Service in Rajasthan

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son, Karti Chidambaram today said that he has never been a shareholder of Ziqitza Health Care Limited (ZHL) and did not receive any notice from any government agencies.  He was reacting to the reports that the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have registered a case against him under charges of money laundering in Ambulance Service in Rajasthan. The agencies have also pulled up former Union Minister Sachin Pilot in the case, according to news reports.

 

Reacting to the reports Karti Chidambaram said that he ceased to be a  director of the company in 2012. He did serve as an independent director of the company and the last Board meeting he attended was in 2008.

“I have not attended any meeting since then and I have not got any official communication about the company, transaction of the company or affairs of the company since then. I am not a shareholder and there is no reason for the company to communicate with me. I was not even on the payroll,” said Karti Chidambaram.

He added that he has not received a notice from any agency till now. If he does get one, he will take appropriate legal recourse.

Ziqitza Health Care in a statement said, “we would like to clarify that neither  Sachin Pilot nor  Karti P Chidambaram have ever had or currently have any ownership stake in ZHL — either directly, indirectly or by way of beneficial interest at any point in time. Neither of them has taken any remuneration or reimbursement or claimed any expense from ZHL while they served as Independent Directors of the Company.”

The statement went on to say that Pilot resigned from the Board of ZHL on March 18, 2004 before he filed the nomination to contest the Parliament elections in 2004.  Karti Chidambaram resigned from the Board of ZHL on February 24, 2012.

The Ambulance Service Contract in Rajasthan in 2009-10 was awarded to ZHL in an open and transparent tender process in which, ZHL was the lowest bidder amongst the three qualified bidders whose price bids were opened.

Reports had stated that CBI and the (ED) have now registered a criminal complaint in the Rajasthan ambulance scam case and booked former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, PCC leader Sachin Pilot and Karti Chidambaram.