ED conducts raid on P Chidambaram Relatives premises

New Delhi Dec 1: In a Major blow to Congress party the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted raids in Chennai and Kolkata, including at the premises of a relative of former finance minister P Chidambaram, in connection with the money laundering probe in the Aircel-Maxis case.

Sources said that " four locations in Chennai and two in Kolkata are being searched since early morning these include the premises of one S Kailasam at Tenaympet have been raided in Chennai. Mr. Kailasam is the maternal uncle of P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram.The premises of S Sambamoorthy and Ramji Natarajan in Chennai and that of Manoj Mohanka at Lee road and Lovelock Place have been raided by the ED."

ED has said that "the raids are in connection with the probe into the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006.ED is investigating the circumstances of the said FIPB approval granted by the then finance minister P Chidambaram".

The ED also alleged that "Karti Chidambaram has disposed of a property in Gurgaon, which he had allegedly rented out to a multinational company "to whom foreign direct investment (FDI) approval had been granted in 2013".