INX Media: ED raids Karti Chidambaram's associates

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted raids at the premises of three suspected associates of Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, in Tamil Nadu in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.

Premises of these three suspected associates, Bhaskar Raman, CVN Reddy and R Vishwanathan were searched under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the anti-money laundering law.

Earlier on Thursday, former Union minister's son was interrogated in this case in Delhi by the Enforcement Directorate.

On January 31, the Supreme Court sent back Karti Chidambaram's plea that challenged the Look Out Circular issued against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the Madras High Court.

Chidambaram, who is an accused in this alleged money laundering case, appealed to the apex court seeking its approval to allow him to travel abroad.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Karti, urged the three-judge bench of the apex court to allow his client to travel abroad for business purpose.

However, earlier the apex court had allowed Karti to travel abroad from December 1 to 10, 2017, for his daughter's admission in the UK, on certain terms and conditions.

It has been alleged that Karti illegally took service charges for getting the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to the INX Media for receiving funds from abroad worth Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the finance minister in the Congress-led UPA Government.

A lookout notice issued by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on July 18 prevented Karti from travelling abroad without the investigating agency's permission.