Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday termed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids against his son Karti Chidambaram “a comedy of errors” and claimed the officers were left “embarrassed” and “apologetic” as they could not find anything.
He was reacting after the ED conducted searches at multiple premises linked to Mr. Karti, the senior Congress leader’s son, in connection with its money laundering probe in the Aircel-Maxis case.
“They have searched premises in Chennai again, but in a comedy of errors they came to search my premises in Jor Bagh,” Mr. Chidambaram said.
“Officers told me that they believed that Karti was an occupant of the house. I told them he is a resident of Chennai and I am the occupant of this house,” he added.
“Since they had the search warrant, I did not raise any objections to the search, but I said I will record my protest that there is no FIR in respect of the scheduled crime registered by any investigating agency, including the CBI.
“There are obviously no proceeds of crime and the ED has no jurisdiction under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act [PMLA],” he added.
The former Finance Minister said that the ED officials searched the place “including the kitchen and the bathroom and obviously they found nothing. They were embarrassed and apologetic that they found me as the occupant, but they had no option but to complete the search.”
“Since they had to justify the search, they took some background papers related to a statement made by the government in Parliament in 2012-13. In Chennai also they found nothing, seized nothing,” he claimed.
Mr. Chidambaram also made a tongue and cheek remark, saying “I will compliment them [investigating agencies] if they are able to find anything [objectionable] in raids in future.”
The Central probe agency had, on December 1 2017, conducted similar searches on the premises of a relative of Mr. Karti and others in this case.
The ED case pertains to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2006 by Mr. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister.
He was reacting after the ED conducted searches at multiple premises linked to Mr. Karti, the senior Congress leader’s son, in connection with its money laundering probe in the Aircel-Maxis case.
“They have searched premises in Chennai again, but in a comedy of errors they came to search my premises in Jor Bagh,” Mr. Chidambaram said.
“Officers told me that they believed that Karti was an occupant of the house. I told them he is a resident of Chennai and I am the occupant of this house,” he added.
“Since they had the search warrant, I did not raise any objections to the search, but I said I will record my protest that there is no FIR in respect of the scheduled crime registered by any investigating agency, including the CBI.
“There are obviously no proceeds of crime and the ED has no jurisdiction under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act [PMLA],” he added.
The former Finance Minister said that the ED officials searched the place “including the kitchen and the bathroom and obviously they found nothing. They were embarrassed and apologetic that they found me as the occupant, but they had no option but to complete the search.”
“Since they had to justify the search, they took some background papers related to a statement made by the government in Parliament in 2012-13. In Chennai also they found nothing, seized nothing,” he claimed.
Mr. Chidambaram also made a tongue and cheek remark, saying “I will compliment them [investigating agencies] if they are able to find anything [objectionable] in raids in future.”
The Central probe agency had, on December 1 2017, conducted similar searches on the premises of a relative of Mr. Karti and others in this case.
The ED case pertains to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2006 by Mr. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister.