INX Media PMLA case: ED questions Karti Chidambaram again

Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister P Chidambaram, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate on Monday for questioning in the INX Media money-laundering case, officials said.

The investigating officer of the case recorded the statement of Karti, a Congress MP from Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He was last questioned in this case in October last year. The MP has been questioned multiple times by the agency in the past in connection with this case, in which his father and Congress leader P Chidambaram has also been quizzed.

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The senior Chidamabaram had been arrested in this case by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last year and had to spend over 100 days in custody before he was released in early December. Karti too was arrested in this case by the CBI. It is understood that Karti is being questioned on some fresh leads obtained by the agency, besides being confronted him with the statements of other witnesses and accused in the case. In 2018, the ED had attached Karti's assets worth Rs 54 crore that were located in India, the UK and Spain in connection with the INX Media case.

Agency sources had earlier alleged that P Chidambaram and Karti were the "beneficial owners" of several shell firms that were incorporated in India and abroad in connection with a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval given to the INX Media group during the former's tenure as the Union finance minister.

The central agency's probe found that the alleged kickbacks so received by the father-son duo were used to meet their "personal expenses". They put the money in over two dozen foreign accounts and purchased multiple immovable assets in countries such as Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Spain among others, according to the ED.

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